He's almost 12!!!!

Tonight was Priesthood Preview for the 11 year olds. I know I started having my kids later in life and many of my friends have already been through this, but for me it was so strange. I don't feel like I am old enough to have a child who has graduated from Primary. Granted, Robbie is a late October birthday, so really we have a long time until it officially happens. The way this year has flown by it will be here before we know it. He is really excited and loved the attention that he got from the bishop and the primary presidency at the preview. The bishop talked to them about being future missionaries and preparing every day. Hopefully, this will help with his chores!!!

Backin'Up

We recently had a major computer crash at our house and are trying to recover. Luckily, we have the greatest home teacher ever (Thanks Bill!!) so he saved us. Originally we were just trying to add some memory and fix a broken disk drive, but somewhere in that process the whole hard drive crashed. Needless to say, I was not prepared and had very little in the way of files backed up on disks (partially because of the broken drive). Bill swooped in and saved us as best he could, but he is trying really hard to find another working version of our old hard drive so he can save most of my pictures and documents.
I've learned the hard way that off-site storage and a removable hard drive is the best way to go. Guess what I get for Christmas!! The good to come from all this is that I am now operating Windows 7 (love it) and my computer is light speed compared to what I used to have. I will be very diligent about backup from now on!

Halloween

Halloween was great this year. By great I mean it wasn't raining and it was only slightly cold. The kids wanted to go as characters from NCIS, but after much cajoling and explaining that no one would know who they were, they decided they all wanted to be doctors and nurses. I get the brilliant idea that I can make scrubs for everyone cheaper than I can buy them...yeah right. After making myself completely nuts sewing like a maniac for 4 days, Preston decided he didn't want to be a Dr. but wore his top as a baseball uniform. I told Todd that if I ever decided to sew costumes again to go ahead and punch me. I was insane!! Thank heaven my mom helped by cutting out all the patterns. I didn't get Cassie done so Shawna came through in a pinch and delivered one adorable (and warm) horse costume.

We went Trick or Treating at Evergreen Point again with Jane and Manda and then met up with John and Shawna a little later. Todd stayed home with the bubba (Will) and gave out our candy. The kids were running up and down the streets. I think the east half of the Stake was over there. We got to see tons of people from the other wards and the kids got great full-size candy and pop as treats. All in all I think it was a great time had by all and it took us over 2 hours to get it all done.

First Day of School

Ok. I will now be playing catch-up on all my posts so you will probably see a lot that are long passed. Oh well, better late than never.

This is the first year that 3 kids are in school full-time. Robbie is in 5th grade with Mrs. Hubbard, Preston is in 2nd grade with Mrs. Godfrey and Riley is in 1st grade with Mrs. Winkler.

They were very excited to go back to school and mom was very excited also!! Cassie was very sad because the kids were going to "cool" and she didn't get to go. It was good that she doesn't know how to unbuckle her carseat, or she would have been out the car door when I dropped them off.

This is Riley's first year for school lunch and she promptly came home the first day and informed me that she was not eating school lunch anymore, only sack lunches. Only Riley. The boys would eat school lunch every single day without a complaint, but not the princess!! The kids are getting settled in now and are enjoying school life again, although I forgot how much busier life really is once school is in session again.

Wee little Willy

I know it's been a long time since I posted and I really don't have too much time so I will just post a few quick pictures of Will. He's almost 3 months old and getting very big. He's a very happy baby and a joy in our home.

The Top 10 Things Ally does right!!!!

You know how sometimes you just have a tendency to get down on yourself? My lovely wife explained to me yesterday that she "can't seem to do anything right!" I tried to explain to her everything in life that she does right, but you know how guys are!!! All I could think of were jokes to try and make her smile. I decided that while at work tonight, I would write her a nice letter and list all of the things that I think she does right, and all of the things that I love about her. Then I decided to try and do one better and list publicly the things I think she does right. I want the world to know just how much I love Ally. Here we go.....

10.....Egg Sandwiches!!!!

Yes I said it. Like that surprises anybody. "Wow, Todd likes food!!!!" I grew up loving Egg Sandwiches. What a nice breakfast to start your day with. Then a couple of years ago Ally decided to make me some for breakfast. What did I find out?? She makes them differently than I do....and much, much better!!! Maybe it's just that they are made with LOVE now, who knows, but I very rarely make my own anymore, I ask Ally to make them.

9......What a Looker!!!

One thing that Ally always does right is prepare herself for the day. Whether it be clothes or make-up, she always knows how to look good. She is constantly getting on me or the boys with "You're not going to wear that are you!!" but she always co-ordinates her clothes right and does her make up right and always looks great. We are in the 13th year of our marriage and every single day she is more beautiful to me.

8......Always looks to improve herself.

This is probably part of the reason why she is currently having this feeling. Always the perfectionist. I have always been impressed and inspired by my wifes work ethic. Whether it be at the jobs she has had, her church callings or just life in itself, she always wants to do her best. Every job she has had, she never fails to quickly move up the ranks. Every church calling she constantly strives to do her best and truly magnify her calling. I look up to her so much, she is truly an example to me.

7......Brown Chicken, Brown Cow!!!!!

Enough said!!

6......Takes a stand.

For any of you that have crossed ways with my wife, you know she will always stand her ground with her opinions, and she has no problem letting you know what those opinions are!! We can just use her last blog entry as an example. Her family always teases that "Ally knows it all", okay, I usually join in on the teasing, but the fact is, she does know quite a bit. She is definitely the smarter of the two of us and her opinions are always well grounded and more often than not.....correct. I love to watch her assert herself and stand for what she believes in.

5......Five beautiful children

If there is anything in this world that you can definitely say that Ally has done right, it's the five beautiful faces that I see each day. They all definitely look like Ally and her family. She does such a good job with raising and teaching them. I mean c'mon, it's not like I do a lot. Really, I don't. In 3 1/2 more hours, I will have worked 76 hrs in the last 5 days. Normal jobs do 40 hrs in that time and I've almost doubled it. If you add in sleep time, that means I'm not around much at home. She has made our kids very loving and caring, smart and resourceful. She is an awesome mother.

4......All I have to say is MUSIC

I guess this goes along with "Ally knows it all!!", but really, don't challenge her. Ally loves to play this game while listening to the radio. "Todd, who sings this song?", really, I never know!!! Nor do I really care, but still, she knows it all!!! I swear one of these days I'm going to sign her up for the "Singing Bee" or something like that. Almost any song we hear, she knows who sings it and she's usually pretty close to the year it came out. "Todd, who sings this?", "Todd, what movie is this song in?" Don't try her, she knows!!! and I love that about her.

3......Cooking

Yes, I went back to food. Are you really that surprised??? I tease Ally quite often about some of the things she cooks and how she always likes to experiment, but she really is a good cook. She has found some recipes that are so good. The things that she does well, she really does well. I still think I'm the better cook though!!

2......She's a great friend

All of you know this better than I do. She is loyal to the end and will truly do anything for a friend. She is the only one I know of that can sit and talk to her best friend for 3 hrs in church and then go home and talk for another 2 hrs on the phone, with the same person. It doesn't matter how close or how far away the friend is, Ally will always be there for them. She has a way of making you feel good and special. She is truly a great friend.

1......The Number One thing Ally has done right??? ME

13 years ago I was going nowhere fast. I had no direction in my life. Then Ally invited me to go to Germany with her to pick up Quinn. My life has never been the same. Standing on the Eiffel Tower and telling Ally that I thought that I loved her was the best thing I've ever done in my life. She inspires me to be better. She makes me want to improve myself, so that I can be as good a husband for her as she is a wife to me. I'm proud of who I am today and I owe all of that to her. I have a good job, I have a beautiful family and I owe all that I have to her. She is truly the love of my life and I will forever be grateful to her.


So, those are just a few of the many things that I know Ally has done right and continues to do right. I'm sure each of you have your own ideas of something that she has done right in your life. Please let her know. Sometimes you need the encouragement from your friends!!!!

Thank you.....

Censored....

OK. I have a tendency (especially when I have an infant and am getting very little sleep) to go off about things. I really have to censor myself often, but sometimes the little switch doesn't work. My last post was one of those times. My best hubby very gently explained that I am ranting in a very, very, very public forum and I probably should limit my use of names and such just to avoid any possibility that said names may read my blog (doubt it) and choose to take their dislike of my opinion out on my children. Enough said. I get it, and probably should have gotten it sooner but hey, I am sleep deprived. Rather than rewrite the whole post, I chose to just delete it. It's much better this way. I am not going to apologize for my opinion, but will be a little more careful about how I express it. I hate it when he is right!!