Activity Days: Paper Heart Attack

We needed to complete some type of service activity and my original plan was to pick up trash on the streets of the neighborhood or local park and then do ice cream in a bag but it was way too hot! I went with a paper heart attack, this is where you cut out paper hearts and write messages to the person you will be attacking. We chose the primary presidency in which we thanked them for all their hard work. We also made rice crispy treats which we left at their doorsteps and covered their doors with the paper hearts, then we knocked on the door and ran. The girls enjoyed all the work but really struggled leaving the rice crispy treats. We had to send them back after knocking at each house because they kept walking off with the treats instead of leaving them on the porch. It was rather silly of them! They enjoyed a rice crispy treat after.

Labor Day Weekend

In a house full of young children most every day is eventful! This past weekend was no exception. The kids and Zack had school off for a nice four day weekend so we made it a busy one:

As we finished up loading the van Taylor surprised us with loosing his first tooth! I took a couple snapshots of him as a keepsake. Don't worry the tooth fairy happened to find him later that night and left a $1! He was thrilled and made sure to spend it on a treat to share with his brothers and sister! What a nice brother!

We went over to Derek's house (one of Zack's friends while growing up) and finally met his wife, Tawna and little girl, Kiley. His poor wife is due to be induced on Wednesday with their second child so a houseful was probably a little more than she wanted but she was so kind and friendly anyway! Their house looked great with all the hard work Derek has put into it and I loved the decor and colors that Tawna picked out. They were very gracious hosts. Thanks for dinner Tawna! It was great to visit, it would be fun to live closer to all of our friends up in Salt Lake. We sure do miss them!

We spent our first night in Grandma Benson's backyard camping out since Mark and Cheryl were in town with their family. Mark's father had passed away earlier in the week and he had been there dealing with all the responsibility of getting things taken care of for his family. He seemed to be handling everything rather well and really had a positive outlook on his father's passing. He said that after nearly 33 years his parents were finally together again and probably dancing! What a sweet thought to such a sudden tragedy for their family.

We were also able to visit with Grandma Benson briefly and then Saturday morning Charles and Erica were around to chat. Ryan and Krystal invited us at the end of July/beginning of August to go camping with them for Labor Day weekend. We found a cozy spot up in Hyrum, Utah at the state park which is right between Brigham City and Logan. Since they live in Boise, Idaho and we live in Southern Utah it was a pretty equal drive for both parties. Jed and Aubrey also ended up coming and joining the party which was a pleasant addition.

The campsite was more of an RV park which was good on all accounts except that we had to go hunting for dirt for the kids to play in. Who can't find dirt while camping? Obviously RVing doesn't mean actually getting dirty since you sleep in a camper! Don't worry we all slept in tents and just roughed it enough to consider it camping. We did have the benefits of hot showers, flushing toilets, grass, water/lake, electricity and even pavement to run around on.

We kept ourselves rather busy throughout the weekend with swimming,

rock skipping,

rolling down the hills,

eating lots of good food,

laughing at way too many silly things,

playing cards and Frisbee and getting to know family a little better. It was a good time had by all. Sorry to those other people who were too busy to join us. We were sad you couldn't make it but don't worry, we had fun without you! Maybe next time we can get all the siblings and their families to party with us!

Kids' Photos

Stephanie decided to make a cute collage of all the grandkids for my mom for her birthday this past week. She took some really cute pictures of the kids minus Matthew, who I just snapped a few shots of for fun of, but I thought they were blog worthy so here they are:

Katelyn - 8 years old


Taylor - 6 years old

William - 4 years old

Joshua - 2 years old

Matthew - 6 months old

The Bill of No Rights by Lewis W. Napper

We, the sensible of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid any more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior and secure the blessings of debt-free liberty to ourselves and our great-great-great grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt-ridden delusional, and other liberal, commie, pinko bedwetters.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that a whole lot of people were confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim that they require a Bill of No Rights.

ARTICLE I
You do not have the right to a new car, big-screen color TV or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything.

ARTICLE II
You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone -- not just you! You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc., but the world is full of idiots, and probably always will be.

ARTICLE III
You do not have the right to be free from harm. If you stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful, do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you and all of your relatives independently wealthy.

ARTICLE IV
You do not have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found, and will gladly help anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes.

ARTICLE V
You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we're just not interested in public health care.

ARTICLE VI
You do not have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us get together and kill you.

ARTICLE VII
You do not have the right to the possessions of others. If you rob, cheat, or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don't be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won't have the right to a big-screen color TV or a life of leisure.

ARTICLE VIII
You do not have the right to demand that our children risk their lives in foreign wars to soothe your aching conscience. We hate oppressive governments and won't lift a finger to stop you from going to fight if you'd like. However, we do not enjoy parenting the entire world and do not want to spend so much of our time battling each and every little tyrant with a military uniform and a funny hat.

ARTICLE IX
You do not have the right to a job. All of us sure want you to have one, and will gladly help you along in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities in education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful.

ARTICLE X
You do not have the right to happiness. Being an American means that you have the right to pursue happiness -- which, by the way, is a lot easier if you are unencumbered by an overabundance of idiotic laws created by those around you who were confused by the Bill of Rights.

Copyright - Lewis W. Napper. All Rights Reserved

Activity Days: Cake decorating

We reviewed the twelfth article of faith:

We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.

Then learned some techniques to cake decorating. The girls loved using all the different icing tips and goofing around. They were more thrilled to eat their creations than anything else!

Capri Sun Lunch Bags

On the capri sun box it has an advertisement for Terracycle, which is a recycling company who uses the drink pouches from capri sun to make items like backpacks, purses, pencil pouches, lunch bags, etc. I thought it looked easy enough and did a little research on the internet about how to make my own lunch bags using the pouches. There is lots of information out there and many different ways to make these bags. This is the ehow site I improvised my pattern from. This was a simple way that worked for me and the kids loved it! Now they have cute lunch bags that were really cheap with a little elbow grease and recycling. Terracycle has lots of information on recycling these type products. I think it is a great project, if you have the motivation!

Birthday Party

Stephanie, Jennifer and I threw together a surprise birthday party for my mom. We got everyone together and had fun even without all the planning behind the scenes! Most everyone was able to attend besides Brandon and Goldie who live out of state and the grandparents who didn't answer their phone. We had cake, ice cream, presents and lots of laughing provided by the kids! My mom was quite surprised, she had talked herself out of us doing something like this. Little did she know, we can whip up a full out party in just a couple hours notice!

I just had to add William and Matthew, especially that sweet toothy grin. Yep, he has two little teeth popping out there! All my babies had their first teeth by 6 months old!

My baby is 6 months old today!

Our baby Matthew is 6 months old today! He is a wonderful baby! He sleeps through the nights, rolls over, sits up, grabs everything he sees, laughs, coos and just grins all the time. He is the absolute best baby ever!!! Matthew is charming, easy go lucky, mellow and a definite people pleaser. His eyes light up whenever someone walks into the room. He is a blessing to our family. We love our little man!

August 24, 2009: I took Matthew to the doctors for his 6 month checkup today. He is 29" tall and 18 lbs 2 oz. He got his 3 immunizations which wasn't much until they had me bring him back a little later and finish up with 2 more shots! He was rather miffed, poor little guy!

First Day of School 2009-2010 School Year

Katelyn and Taylor started back to school this week. We participated in the open house at Sandstone Elementary the night before, so the kids would get to meet their teachers and find out where their classrooms would be. It always seems to help the night before jitters. At least they know a little about what to expect. Katelyn is entering third grade this year. She will be in Mrs. Snyders class, where she already knows some of the kids. She is thrilled to be able to play on the monkey bars this year, as the first and second graders cannot. Katelyn will be learning cursive and her times tables. She is rather thrilled to be back. Taylor is so excited to be going to first grade. He is in Mrs. Broadhead's class with a couple neighbor boys. He will now be eating lunch at school and thinks he's pretty hot stuff. Taylor is going to be advancing in reading and math this year.

The first day of school was Thursday. Taylor woke me up at 4:30 am to make sure he was dressed alright and find out what else he needed to do to be ready. I told him to finish getting his clothes on and then GO BACK TO BED! He woke up again at 6:45 and asked every five minutes if we needed to leave yet. Katelyn was more leisure about the whole thing but was up and dressed by 7am. She was excited but values her sleep too much to give any up. We all got ready and walked to the school where we proceeded to take a few snapshots and give hugs. Katelyn was in her element the moment we entered the gate and immediately found some friends to play with out on the playground. Taylor on the other hand ran straight to his classroom and shut the door behind him incase I might snap a few shots again. They both came home very bubbly, excited about their experiences. Zack dropped them off after school as it took awhile for the kids to meet up with each other. Oops... I forgot about that little detail! They had a blast though! This looks to be another great school year for the Alvey kids!

Camping trip

My dad was looking for a way to include everyone on our family outings or at least trying to start having more outings and invited everyone to come camping the weekend before school starts back up. He purchased a 26-ft rv from craigslist to make sure there were all the modern conveniences and luxuries you may not usually have on a camping trip: a/c, toilets, microwave, regular mattress, four-wheelers, tv and dvd player (the important stuff right?)

We headed up to Pine Valley but it was packed, then off to Enterprise we went. It was a little ways away from the rest of the world but very nice and kept us busy with many activities. We ended up still being in the Dixie National Forest which is more like Dixie National Sage Brush but that is because here they haven't been around real trees. The camping aspect of things was a bit of a challenge since the tempature dropped a good 20 degrees during the night. Zack and I both slept with a baby to keep them warm. Poor Katelyn was sleeping in her little Hannah Montana sleeping bag that is good for sleepovers and that is about it. It was a good thing I brought an extra blanket just incase. I had her get into our sleeping bags too when I noticed her poor teeth chattering away.

We all woke up early and were able to enjoy the rest of the campout. We played games, hiked the honeycomb rocks, went through caves, took the 4 wheelers up through the mountains, went swimming, roasted hot dogs and even got a game of spades in.