Tyson and Elise Arnold Family

Update

2012-02-02T13:27:00.000-08:00

Where do I start? I haven't blogged in so long and I haven't taken a lot of pictures. I have been super busy with music, more music, and more music with some baking on the side.

I guess I will explain the pictures first. The first one would be The Opskamatrist show at Sammies. They are a local band that two of my voice students are in. I love the music and I like the social part of it. The second pictures would be Natalia in her cute little Hello Kitty sweatshirt that Becca got her. She looks alot different now though because Jaden decided to cut her hair. That story will have to come later. The third picture apparently if me grading papers taken by one of my students who stole my phone. I thought you might like to see me in action. It's actually probably the only time I was actually sitting down this year. I am not a teacher that likes to sit still. The final picture is a shirt I found at Old Navy in Idaho Falls for Natalia! People are finally starting to realize who's the best team around. I had to get it. They had a matching one in my size but it was $25 and I just wasn't willing to pay that much right now. Maybe after I get paid this month.

So, I guess I should start with Christmas. We had a good Christmas we were in Kuna this year but we had a wedding in Utah three days later for Keenan and I made the wedding cake. It is by far my favorite cake I have ever made. It turned out amazing. You should look at the pictures of it at elisescakeshop.blogspot.com . I actually had some rough stuff happen right before Christmas that really affected the holiday for me. But, I got to go to the temple for the wedding and did so much better after that. It's still been a little rough but I'm doing ok. Because of the situation Tyson and I decided it was a good time for me to apply for a masters. Which I just did this week. I applied to the music program at BYU. My chance of getting in is slim I'm sure but I'm going to try anyway. I have a lot of experience and willingness to get better so we shall see what happens. I don't know that I really want to move to Utah but it's better than little old Idaho and I do have a lot more family there. I love the big city and that will help. Also I love music and I love music in the gospel I have a huge testimony of it so it's the perfect school to combine both at of course. So, pray that I get in if it's supposed to happen. I love teaching school and I love my students but I feel like I am in a rut and need to learn something knew and challenge myself some more.

So, Jaden decided one evening to cut Natalias hair. I was so so so so upset. Jut, luckily Jessica lives 15 minutes away and we went and got a hair cut. It's way cute on Natalia and fits that little spunky personality that she has. She is defiantly not one of those cutesy frilly girls. She has an attitude and loves music, dancing, shoes, and cat in the hat. She's still a girly girl though. Her favorite color is pink, she loves dolls and strollers and cooking in the kitchen. She is my little musician though. She loves to play any instrument. She found my flute a week ago and wanted to play it. We also have a drum set now. With the help of a student Natalia has come to love drums. He lets her sit on his lap and hold the drum sticks while he plays if she's around. I also wanted to learn a new instrument and I though drum set would be a fun one because it has so many techniques, you have to be able to multi task and all sorts of other good stuff. Plus I like the sound. She likes the piano also and loves singing to the radio. Whenever we get in the car she says "mommy I want music". This week when I took her to the school to get some stuff for my masters application she saw one of our students playing the cello. She was over there right away and he let her hold his bow with him while he was playing. He's an amazing cellist and has been playing since kindergarten. Natalia was so mad when he had to put it away to get to his next class. I have a feeling I am going to become rich so I can get all these instruments and have a room for all of them. I don't mind that idea though.

Jaden is in first grade and loves school. He is excelling so fast. He's teacher is really impressed. He went from being behind everyone in class to being average. He is getting better at reading but doesn't love it. Which I know I haven't helped with. He is amazing at spelling and he's getting pretty good at math. I am having a hard time with him though because he's an outside person and he is driving everyone nuts with the fact that he's stuck inside all day. It hasn't been as cold here lately but it's still cold and all the snow melts really fast which makes it muddy outside. I really appreciate good teachers. Jaden has had good ones so far. It's nice though because his teacher is really good about letting him get up and stand up while she's teaching because he has a hard time sitting still without getting side tracked. I'm the same way and that's why I run my classroom so different. My students are hardly ever at their seats. They are always getting up and crowding around the piano (which I love) or walking around. I think it helps there mind be free to explore new ideas and not be afraid to do so. My favorite is when they crowd around the piano. We are always talking about being a family and it just has a family feel when they are all around me. In fact we are getting some fun pictures taken this year because this class has connected so well to eachother. On Sunday I went to a mission farewell for one of my students and when I walked in I was surrounded by so many students. Graduated and present students. I sat down and I was sitting in the middle of three rows of students. It was the greatest feeling to see them all together again and singing together. It was amazing.

Tyson is the young mens president right now. He's busy with school and church but has been a great and supporting husband. He does most of the cooking dinner and getting the kids to bed because I'm not home a lot.

I am currently teaching school part time obviously. I also have four private students, PTO vice president, vice president of the Jefferson County Arts Council and will be directing the county adult choir in a month and a half. I am helping with the high school musical once a week arranging the music for them and helping small quartets with there music. I have students singing the National Anthem at games. I have a student doing a senior project with me as his mentor. He's writing a symphonic piece and let me tell you it's amazing. If you would like to hear it email me and I'll send you a link. Then I got to shows for the Opskamatrist once in a while, have cake orders, cook meals for families that have babies in the ward, Tysons candy machines, and I can't forget doing zumba and goign to the gym when I can, and who knows what else.

So that's the life of the Arnolds. We are rather busy but loving life and our moments together. I will update you when I find out about school.

Pictures

2012-01-01T17:55:00.000-08:00

I have so many pictures to put up but it's not being my friend right now I will try again tomorrow. Sorry I haven't been very good about updating stuff. It's been a busy couple of months and a rough couple of weeks.

The Opskamatrists

2011-12-13T17:34:00.000-08:00

This is a local band from Eastern Idaho. This is the band that my student who received the distinguished student award for the week in Eastern Idaho. I also have a voice student in this band. Help them out. They just made there debut on Itunes. Go listen to there music and if you like it buy it. They are amazing!!!!!!!!! Follow the link bellow to find there music.

The Opskamatrists http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/the-opskamatrists/id488942815

Happy Halloween

2011-11-02T09:02:00.000-07:00

My cute little owl. I will have to take a picture of the back sometime. It turned out so cute. I loved it.

Jaden was a robot. I know it's a cheap not cool costume like my moms homemade but I was so busy this halloween and he wanted it and it was 60% off so I said yes.

This Halloween was a little crazy for me. I am now the Vice-President and Activities Chair for the PTO at Jaden's school. This year that meant I was in charge of the Halloween Carnival. So on the 28th we had the Carnival that went really well.It couldn't have gone smoother. Thanks to all those people that came and helped. Then on the 29th we had the ward trunk-or-treat. Then finally on the 31st we went to the mall for some treak-or-treating. I know it's not as fun as house to house at my parents but it's safe and warm inside.

Natalia the Artist

2011-10-23T19:23:00.003-07:00

This was a long time ago but I forgot about them because they were on my phone. One day I came back up stairs from cleaning or doing something in the basement and I was surprised with some amazing art all around my house. Don't worry all of it came off except for the window sill.

She takes after my mom. She loves to draw, paint, color anything that has to do with markers. Forget about the paper when you have a whole house and yourself you can color.

oh natalia

2011-10-23T19:22:00.000-07:00

hhhh

Gage and Natalia eating candy I think.

She loves her backpack. And she is a goof ball can you tell?

Don't forget the dog when you give hugs and kisses.

It was so cute. I came into the front room to check on Natalia because it was really quiet and this is what I found. She fell asleep.

Natalia Dressed herself during conference. Snow boots and all.

I love love love this picture of Natalia. It shows her personality perfectly. Bright, Funny, and Fashionable.

Natalia has curly hair but it's kind of awkward and stringy right now. So she let me curl it one day. It turned out so cute. Mom do you recognize that necklace? She wears it everywhere.

First day of School

2011-10-23T19:16:00.001-07:00

I thought I forgot to take a picture of Jadens' first day of school again this year and then I found one on my phone better late than never.

First Snow

2011-10-23T16:10:00.000-07:00

Yes we had are first snow in Rigby Idaho. All I could say was Yuck! I know the snow is pretty but not the first week of October didn't enjoy that one bit. Also, the snow seems to never go away here. This picture is after it melted a little in the morning. The day before and all night it snowed pretty hard and didn't stop. The only thing that kept it from accumulating more was that it was a really wet snow.

Quick Update

2011-10-03T09:05:00.000-07:00

I don't have any pictures currently. I have not been good at the picture taking lately. What's going on here in Rigby Idaho? Alot of nothing. We are busy constantly with school, family, church, more school and some more school. Tyson's brother Gabe got his mission call to Bogota Columbia North Mission. We are really excited for him and a little nervous to. Columbia, Yikes! Everyone came here for the day last minute to watch him open his mission call. The next day all the boys went to Quintals old house to put a fence up for the renters and then came and hooked up my gas dryer.
We have been living without a dryer pretty much all summer. It wasn't a really big deal because it was nice and hot and we have a clothes line in our backyard. But, it is starting to turn into fall and I can dry my clothes but they don't dry nearly as fast. Tyson helped someone move into there house and with all the moving and things being left behind by other people they ended up with three dryers. They gave us one for free!!!!! That's right for free. I was so grateful and all we had to do was hook up a gas line since we don't have one. It ended up costing us $100 because of supplies but we were so grateful. It's almost brand new and actually ended up matching our washer. We finally had soft towels again and Tyson and I were so grateful.
We went to a corn maze and pumpkin patch and Jaden and Natalia got a little pumpkin. Natalia picked a white one (with mommies help :) ) It was a lot of fun. I was a little disappointed because it wasn't an actual pumpkin patch this year. I love going to an actual pumpkin patch and walking through the plants looking for the perfect pumpkin but that's ok it was still in a corn field so it kinda had the same effect.
Jaden is loving school and really likes his teacher. We had a little bit of an unfortunate event already but what can I say he's a boy. I got a call one afternoon from the principal and he told me Jaden got in a fight and was put in in-school suspension for the rest of the day and the next. After feeling like a horrible mother and crying, and not knowing where I went wrong and why I just don't understand my son etc. I went and picked him up and found out that a 2nd grader (twice the size of Jaden and not someone you really want to mess with) had said something mean to Jaden and then punched him. So, Jaden did what any boy I guess would do. He punched him back. I supported the school in their decisions for punishment but didn't really punish him at home. Simply because I can't expect him to act any other way. We talked to him and told him he should have told someone instead of punched the kid back. But at the same time that kid probably will leave Jaden alone now where as if he would have told on him he would probably still tease him.
Other than that not much is going on here. I'm sick of potty training. Anyone have any suggestions for getting the little stinker to poop in the toilet. So frustrating.

2011-08-28T20:53:00.001-07:00

New post on my cake blog.

Cookie Recipe

2011-08-14T14:40:00.001-07:00

I posted my Chocolate Marshmallow cookie recipe on my Cake Blog if you would like it Sis. Baker :) and others of course.

All in one day

2011-08-04T09:18:00.000-07:00

These aren't really in order of event. So, I will tell you how the day started. The night before I stayed up till 4 AM making cake, bread, muffins, and cookies for the county fair. Our county fairs are smaller here and then our state fair is huge. Anyway I decided I really wanted to enter some stuff into the fair so that maybe I could win a little money (very little, like $10), and maybe my stuff would win and go to the state fair. So, I woke up took my stuff to the fair, took some cookies to the church for a funeral, and then we went to the lake for a couple of hours. We haven't had much time to go to the lake this year but every time we go Natalia loves Laying in the sand.

Jaden is usually making new friends at the lake. He is a social butterfly. Then, after the lake we went home took a couple of naps, went back to the fair to see how the judging went. When I looked at the display case this is what I saw!!!!!! Judges choice on my cake, judges choice on my cookies and everything else 1st place!!!!!!! I couldn't be happier. It was so much fun and had a blast. It will deffiently be something I do every year. Hopefully it will help the fair to. Our fair is a little wimpy because it's just contests and animals. Not many people go to look at it and the baking section lacks on entries. I am excited for the challenge to make another creative cake next year but i hope other people will look at it and want to do the same instead of the plain old traditional stuff. My cake was dark chocolate with blackberry filling, cookies were chocolate marshmallow, muffins: blackberry cream, bread: Challah bread, and then I entered some hand painted suckers.

Natalia got to hold a bunny. She was very upset when I told her it was time to put it back.

After the fair we went to Fanny's for some hot dog roasting. Thanks to Caleb Jaden is obsessed with fire. :) After that our veterinarian office expanded and so they had an open house with food, tours, petting zoo, and horse rides. As you can see my children loved the horse ride. In fact Natalia screamed when I took her off.

That would be a chicken. Yes petting a chicken Nathan. It was very tame.

And of course more bunnies. I think I know what to get her for a birthday present this year. We will see though. Tyson might just kill me if I get a bunny.

Graduation, July 24th (Pioneer Day), and family

2011-08-04T08:46:00.000-07:00

Well we had lots of people graduate this semester in the Arnold Family. Trevor in accounting, Audra in Elementary Education, Quintal in Elementary Education, and Skyler in Nursing. (Skyler wasn't there because he had to work.) So, what did we do? We went to lots and lots of graduation. It was so fun though to see them all move on in their lives. Trevor and Audra are now in Missouri for Grad School. Quintal will be moving his family to Wyoming for a teaching job there. Skyler will be continuing his work in Boise at a hospital there and enjoying there new son Xander. (i hope i spelled that right.)

Since it was also Pioneer Weekend. We went to one of the many local parades for the big day. This would be uncle Keenan with Natalia. He had to have his comfortable chair on the steps in the shade. He is quite the entertainer to say the least.

Then, we had a baby blessing on Sunday. Christine and Jerum blessed Ila, who is number 4 in the family.

2011-07-10T19:01:00.000-07:00

Summer has been crazy.

2011-07-10T18:59:00.000-07:00

I really don't know where to start. I am so behind on my blog it's horrible. I really need to sit down once a week and update for the week. We were in Oregon and Boise for two weeks. It was so nice to get out of little old Rigby for a little while. We went to lots and lots of baseball, which I loved because I really haven't gotten to see my brother play, went to a bakery called Sweet Life and had there Chocolate Orgasm cake, which was amazing so please forgive the name. Used my new Birthday Presents that I got and will take pictures this week when I actually have them out for a cake order. Grandma Morgenegg that's what I did with your money, went shopping for my birthday cake supplies. I got an awesome cake stand, little wire things with jewels to hang on a cake and some stuff to decorate with. I also went to the fun and interesting (which is an understatement) saturday market in Eugene. It was fun to be around so many people but alot of them were kinda stinky and dirty. I also went to the saturday market in Boise and that one was amazing and not so many weird people. At the Boise one there were two bakery places selling cupcakes. Let me tell you they were so busy and they were plain, normal sized cupcakes selling for the same amount if not more that I sell my big decorated ones for. I would love to live in a big city like that and be able to sell stuff like that and be that busy. I do pretty good here but not like I would there. At the Boise one, Alexa bought lunch and we had a giant crepe with egg, cheese, bacon, ham and spinach in it. So good and so cool to watch them make it. They make it look so easy, then we finished off with a fresh squeezed lemonade it was Heavenly.

We went to this big water park in Boise area because Kelly one a free season pass there so Janie sold it so we could all go. We went the first day and got rained out with thunder and lightning so they gave us rain check tickets for free which is so nice of them because they don't give refunds for stuff like rain. So we went the next day and had a blast. They have a ton of water slides, I went on most of the tube ones but some of those are to high and to exposed for me to get the guts to go on them. Jaden went on all of them and loved all of them. He is a little gutsy kid. I didn't get pictures of him on all the slides because I really didn't want my camera to get wet. Ok all my pictures are on picasa so I 'm going to post the pictures all seperate because I don't know how to do it any other way and the way I'm doing it right is going to take forever. .

Elise's Sweet Creations

2011-06-13T00:01:00.000-07:00

I got great news. I called the Health Department to find out about selling cakes and cupcakes out of my home. In the state of Idaho they are considered a low risk food and can be sold out of the home as long as I don't sell them retail. So I got the food exemption form (which is free) had it signed by the health department. So, had all that taken care of and this was my debut, please look at my cake blog so that I don't have to upload the pictures twice. You can click on the link to follow Elise's Sweet Creations

2011-06-12T23:55:00.000-07:00

You might be asking what this might be. Well, this would be the back to an earing. It's an odd thing to be taking a picture of and then posting on a blog. Today, Natalia actually left her earings in all day until after dinner where she took it out and then I put it back in. Well, later I was putting her to bed and her earing was gone again. She said she took it out outside and so that earing is gone. Well, then she starts playing with her ear and keeps on saying earing. So, I look in her ear and this is down in her ear. Luckily I was able to carefully grab it with some tweezers because it was far down in there but not that far.

Lots of Pictures

2011-06-12T23:34:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh I have been so bad about updating the blog. I have been busy. These pictures are from easter. I just haven't been on top of things. Lexi made sugar cookies and Jaden was busy doing something. Probably playing outside but Natalia made sure and helped decorate them after our Easter egg hunt. Isn't she so cute. After our trip to Nauvoo, Natalia and Lexi are best buds.

I know my pictures are a little backwards but I don't have the patience to fix it. Natalia loved having all the eggs in her basket. She was so darn cute.

Natalia had so much fun finding eggs. She was running all over the place and Jaden was so good about helping her find them to. He made sure he left some for her.

As we all know Jaden is a quick kid and I was able to catch him actually walking and not sprinting across the lawn once.

Natalia following Jaden getting all the eggs he leaves behind for her.

So, when we left Rigby there was no sign of spring coming anytime soon. In fact we just started getting flowers blooming about two weeks ago. The last of my tulips are sitting on my table in a vase so I can actually enjoy them because it's been kind of rainy and cold here. I don't mind the rain it's the cold that come with it that I don't like. So, while I was in Boise I had to take some pictures so that I could look at them when it was gloomy and depressing.

My mom sent an Easter box. Do you like the ears?

For Natalias birthday my mom made Natalia and apron that matches the one she made me for Christmas.

Easter Dress

2011-05-04T13:32:00.000-07:00

This year I was way to busy to make an Easter dress. I loved this dress that I saw at baby gap and decided it was the perfect dress for Natalia. I know that we decide our kids fashion for them but poofy dresses just look funny on her, maybe because she is so active but still likes being a girl, or maybe it's just me. I don't know but it was perfect on her. Better yet it was on the clearance rack with and extra 30% off. I love the baby gap but the stuff there is so expensive for a baby. Oh I had tons of fun in picasa so bear with my attempt at being a photographer.

Play Dough

2011-05-04T13:16:00.000-07:00

Funny thing, Christ and Jerum decided to play payback and get Natalia play dough because I got there some these fun little baby stamp things. Well, turns out that Natalia is such a clean freak that the play dough didn't leave the table and they had a blast.

Jessicas Birthday Present

2011-05-04T12:06:00.000-07:00

Jessica got this tutu and outfit for Natalia and she looked so darn cute in it. I couldn't resist her.

She also has the necklace on that Fanny gave her. In fact I don't think she has taken it off since it was given to her. She loves that thing.

My Baby Girl is 2!!!!!!

2011-04-17T20:50:00.000-07:00

Well, Natalia was actually sick on her birthday. But we celebrated it on the 9th when all of the Arnold family was in town for graduation. We had so much fun and so many people here. I filled our whole front room with 144 balloons and put the gate up and locked the kids in there with the balloons they had a blast.

I love this picture. She literally climbed inside the bag to make sure she got everything out and then realized while her head was in there that she missed something! What was it? A giant smarties! She loves the things and discovered that Joann's carries them and has been a pill in the check out line ever since.

She is feeding her smarties to her doll in her new high chair.

Look at those giant smarties. She was in Heaven but she shared with everyone though. What a little sweetheart. Her favorite candy is Smarties.

Check out her birthday cake on my cake blog Elise's Sweet Creations. I plan on making her another little cake for her actual birthday but like I said she was sick so I will be making it another day. Maybe for Easter.

Alexa Graduated!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-04-15T11:04:00.000-07:00

What does this building look like? Did you say the conference center? That would be wrong if you did. This is the new BYU-Idaho center. It is the same exact floor plan as the conference center just a bit smaller. It's about a third of the size. Looking at it and being it you would never know. It's an amazing building. I remember when they announced that they would be building. Women's choir had the opportunity of getting to sing at the meeting. Now it is done and thankfully I have already had the opportunity to sing in it with a choir when Sis. Beck came and spoke. What an amazing experience!

Here is Alexa graduating. She graduated in Animal science and some minor that I don't remember. Isn't she so cute and pregnant. Congrats Lexi. We are so proud of you the only down side is now you are in Boise and we can't hang out anymore and Diamonds best friend is gone.

Spud Feed

2011-04-14T15:01:00.000-07:00

This is the only picture I have of our very large fundraiser. This is Lynda. The band teacher that I work with. She is an awesome lady and so funny. Anyway, we had our annual spud feed at Shelley High School this year (our mascot is the Russets, so a spud feed fits). We had 400 pounds of potatoes donated this year and at the end of the night had about 50 pounds left. It was so successful and packed the whole night. It went so much better than last year and we made almost double the amount of money this year. We are still learning and made a few trips to the grocery store down the road for low supplies but as we get this under our feet and have more and more donated I can't imagine what it will be like the future. It's a lot of work but so rewarding in the end. This year we used it to help the students pay for lagoon. So many made enough to pay for lagoon and the rest made almost half of their lagoon fees. I am so proud of our students and all the faculty that came and supported us. We couldn't have done it without them.

Semi warm day

2011-04-12T09:24:00.000-07:00

Isn't she so cute. It was semi warm outside so we went and swung on the swing outside for a little while.

Tyson, Jaden, and Jorge played on the tramp. Which has had snow shoveled off more than once since it's been put up.

Lots of pictures

2011-03-07T09:08:00.000-08:00

Mom, I'm ready to go sledding! She loves sledding. But, I am excited that the snow has started to melt. She is wearing my coat from when I was little.

Conner had his birthday party. We went to a Game world. Natalia is a climber she was up with the big kids running around. Tyson had to go up and get her. Then they did the bumper cars. They had some fun and Jaden was out to get Daddy and Natalia. Then we went for cake and ice cream. As you can see Natalia loved it and was covered in frosting and ice cream. This is the cake we made for Conner. He loved it, especially the toys. I know it's all crafty to make everything edible including the figurines, but I don't think I am artsy enough for that and kids want real toys. So why not use those instead. They are just as expensive and so much easier to do. Maybe sometime I will try to make things out of modeling chocolate but right now I enjoy just using real toys.

Natalias Doll

2011-02-13T14:37:00.000-08:00

Natalias doll needed some cuter clothes so I took some left over fabric and presto this is what we got. She loves it even more now and carries it everywhere.

Great Grandpa

2011-02-09T08:45:00.000-08:00

I don't have pictures of the funeral yet but I do have some pictures of Natalia because she went with me. Great Grandpa Drake passed away and we will all miss him so much. Jessica and I (along with Natalia, because she is free to fly) went to Medford for about 1 and a half days. It was quite the adventure. We started by driving to boise to catch our first plane. When we got there we found out that our plane was delayed by and hour because of weather in Salt Lake. Well, that was kind of a problem since that would make it nearly impossible to catch our flight to Medford if our plane was even a minute late. Jessica told the lady that we couldn't miss that flight for a funeral and she was nice enough to change our flight to one that was leaving in 20 minutes. We got our tickets whent through security and literally ran through the air port with Natalia and our lugage to get on our plane. We made it 10 minutes before they started boarding. Natalia was such a good sport and we were tired by the time we got over there. We had a nice flight to Salt lake and Natalia loved the window on the plane. It was also really nice that no one was sitting next to me so she got to have her own seat once we took off and I didn't have to hold her. When we got to Salt Lake we had alot of time. We went and found our gate and then let Natalia play in one of the play areas in the airport. We were in Salt Lake what would you expect. It was really good that we took the earlier flight because there is no way that we could have made it on time. It took us 40 minutes to get to that gate from the other and that was with Natalia walking for some of it. We would have had to spring across the airport and there is no way I could have done that with Natalia. We got into Medford and My dad and grandpa were there to pick us up. Natalia had slept on the plane and was kind of out of it but was happy to see her grandpas. When we got to the house my grandma had some moose munch for me. I love that stuff.
The funeral was nice and it was good to see all our family in the church together. Someday it will always be like that but until then it was nice to see. We had a long day of funeral stuff and then we went to Harry and David. I love that place and all my truffles I got are allready gone. I need to go again.
Thursday we got to do the plane thing all over again. Our plane from San Fransisco to Boise got loaded and then unloaded because the electricity wasn't working. People were so mean. It was so frustrating to hear them chewing out the lady like it was her fault. The plane was packed. There wasn't a single open seat on the plane. I origianlly had some guy next to me and asked if he would switch with my sister so that Natali could climb on both of us. It was crazy. When we got off the plane we went and got our final Dutch Bros. before we headed back to no mans land. We were off and Natalia cried the whole way home. It sucked.

Traumatic

2011-01-20T08:41:00.000-08:00

So jaden had to get a tooth pulled yesterday. On Monday all the sudden his tooth hurt again and his cheek swelled up. Come to find out it was an absess and so Tyson took him to the dentist and they had to pull his tooth. I am so glad Tyson took him because he freaked out and was still screaming when they had left the dentist. Now, he has to get the same tooth on the other side pulled and then three fillings. We will be going to a pediatric sedation dentist now for the next ones and I am not looking forward to the bill. The dentist said in little kids most the time absess teath come from them drinking to much juice and pop. But we really don't have that much sugar in our house and the dentist was surprised. He also said that kids his age are constantly eating and that keeps the acid level up in their mouth. So maybe he is eating constantly. I try to only let him eat three times a day with a little snack after school but he mus be sneaking food or something.
The other thing that happened was that our Joanns in Idaho Falls is moving locations on March 11th. It will be a whole new store and beacause of that they are liquidating EVERYTHING. So everything is 15% off right now so that means my 50% off coupon doesn't work, my teacher discount doesn't work and they have nothing left right now. I went to go get flannel to maky a baby blanket for someone in our ward and they had nothing left. I mean NOTHING. All they have left is the expensive fabrics and I don't want those because our ward is on a budget. So what do I do now? I don't really know yet. So frustrating and it's going to be another month and a half till I have a new store to go to. It will be a really cool store when it's open though and it's going to be huge with everything in it. Finally.
I got asked to organize the relief society birthday dinner and make the birthday cake for it. I am so excited and can't wait to make a cool cake for them to eat. I am thinking that maybe I will do miniature individual cakes but I haven't decided because that would be so many people. I really want to make one of the cakes in the book my mom got me but the wilton stand that it needs to finish the effect is $60 bucks. I could get it online with my coupon for $30 but I don't have 30 dollars to spend. Sad day. I will be saving up for it and then when I have another coupon I will be purchasing it for sure. I also want to get one of those really nice, tall cupcake stands.

Help

2011-01-16T20:02:00.000-08:00

I need some help. Last year I bought the little kitchen that goes with this refrigeratory. Now, for Natalias birthday I would love to get the refrigerator but I can't find it any more. I found the set but it's $150 and I don't need the kitchen nor do I want ot pay that much. It's the "Badger Basket tea party motif play refrigerator" If you find one let me know because I really would like them to match. I found another reasonably priced wooden refrigerator from sears but it's pastel purple and wouldn't match. I guess I could have my mom paint it to match :) I know she really doesn't want that so if you could help me out that would be great.

Having Some Fun

2011-01-12T11:43:00.000-08:00

Natalia loves her brush and her rain boots that Grandma Arnold got her. They are so cute and the nice thing is she can put them on herself the only problem is they are a little big.

It was extremely cold but we haven't gotten to go sledding yet but we whent for about a half hour and then Natalias little hands got cold with all her mittens on. I am going to be looking for some really nice gloves for her to wear on pay day. She had so much fun thoug, we all did.

Diamond loves when we take her sleding. She chases the sleds up and down the hill.

We had to celebrate our ducks. I actually saw quite a few people in duck stuff. Maybe because they all love Brandon Bair. They actually did a story on him in the paper here and it was amazing. They interviewed some of the players and they talked about how everyone looks up to him and his morals and how that's what gets Eugenes attention. Maybe because that's rare there.

These were my famous cupcakes. I put yellow and green food coloring in the cupcake batter. I made yellow cupcakes and then filled them with green cake batter with a piping bag. So, when you bite into the cupcake you were suprised because it was green in the middle. Then I used my crikut and cute out the stars and "O"s to put ontop. Oh, I topped it off with green and yellow striped frosting. There's more pictures on my cake blog. elisescakeshop.blogspot.com

Christmas 2010

2011-01-06T08:53:00.000-08:00

was an adventure this year. It was an amazingly good adventure. We got to go back to Springfield and be with my family for Christmas. It was so good to be home in normal winter temperatures where it rained everyday and one day actually snowed. Perfect. This is mosty pictures but I will try and narrarate some of them. I did get a new camera for Christmas from Tyson. I have such an amazing husband. It's a Nikon coolpix 15x optical zoom. It even has a setting for taking pictures of food which is perfect for all my desserts and cakes that I have been making lately. If you want to see pictures of that go to elisescakeshop.blogspot.com I put my moms birthday cake up on that website and it didn't turn out exactly how I wanted but it still looked and tasted amazing. To add to all the amazement I got a ton of cake decorating materials from my mom. I can't wait to take some classes and start trying some of it out.

Natalia wearing Tysons Boise State hat that he got from my Dad

Natalia was good at helping people unwrap presents and testing out all the presents that weren't hers. That would be Jadens woody doll

More of Natalia unwrapping

I love this picture but I don't know why it won't stay flipped the right way.

Natalia loves brushing her hair. Good thing her aunt can teach her some tricks with hair.

Grandpa got her cute earings.

Jaden got a crayon maker. It's kind of a gift for me to so that when they brake all the crayons we can melt them and reuse them instead having to buy new ones.

Natalia was quite the entertainer but she got tired after having to help everyone open presants.

Jaden has been wearing PJ's since we got done with Christmas. I would almost say that it was his favorite gift. We alternate with How to Train you Dragon, Toy Story and frog pajamas. He wears normal clothes to school but as soon as he gets home he is in PJ's

Natalia got a princess phone and she loves it. Mom, I think it got left at your house though because I haven't seen it.

My mom actually smiled for the camera (it was our second try)

Nathan and Stefanie

Another picture that wouldn't flip right. So annoying. Anyway we have pictures of us all sitting in this rocking chair. Love this little girl.

We decided to make gingerbread houses. It wasn't supposed to be a competition but you know the Drake family. We are competitive in everything. This was before......

This is after.

We are really good at making messes to.

So we had a slight problem. Jessica and I both started using Neccos for our roof and She stoll all of them. So, my sweet dad went to the store to find me an alternative. He came home with wafer cookies and they worked perfectly. And I wasn't the only one who benefited. This is the front of my house

This is the side and back. You can see the roof better and then I did a wrap around porch. If you look at the front veiw you can see little stairs on the left hand side.

Stefan had a little fun with the frosting.

This would be Jaden and Nathans. It's the candy cane lodge in the candy cane forest. On top ofthe sign is a shotgun.

This is jessica and chads front of the house. They all had names and I can't remember the name of thiers. Nathan called mine the japanese house or something like that.

This is Stefan and Shannons. This one is the Griswaulds house beacause of all the "lights" on the roof.

The back of Stefan and Shannons

The back of Jessica and Chads. As you can see there's a balcony with a hot tub and the bottom one has a barbecue.

and finally Nathans house back. There's a giant door for Nathan to get through and a deer with an arrow through it and a bow and arrow on the other side of the door. Don't you love his chimney. It's a slide feature so that santa can have a little fun while he comed down the filthy chimney. It was so entertaining to watch him work with Jaden and result there are some random gum drops on the roof on the right hand side.

Stefan with Bandit and Peanut. My parents now have two dogs. Stefan loves them and my mom tolerates them which is a huge change to when I was at home. :)

Santa left Jaden a military lego set. It will build a tons of differant things like a tank, helicopter, jet, plane, jeep, semi and more and you can build them all at once. You don't have to take one apart to build the other. Natalia got a bouncing and babbles baby alive. Everytime we go to walmart she would pull them off the shelf and carry them around so that's what she got.

My cute baby girl in her pj's that my mom made her. My mom calls it "hippy fabric" since I'm the Hippy in the family which isn't really a hippy. But I do love alot of hippy paterns and other things.

Jaden going crazy can you see all the presents and wrapping paper surrounding him?

We had a great christmas and really enjoyed being in Oregon again. We are hoping to someday move back. Tyson was looking at some community colleges to teach at in the area once he gets his masters. I hope so much it happens becuase I love it there. I got my fill of dutch bros. to last me till next time hopefully. That's the only downside for tyson he said becuase I would spend so much money going there every day. Which is probably true. I love that place. They actually have some in Boise area and I have got Janie (Tysons mom) hooked on them. Every time I'm in Boise it's our little thing to go and get a smoothie. I think it's a great tradition.

Hope everyone had a good christmas like us and a happy new year.

Chritsmas Concert.

2010-12-18T08:26:00.000-08:00

It's finally over. I love the concert but it's so stressful getting to it. My students did so well and I am so proud of them. This year I decided to combine chamber with show to make them sound bigger and give them some confidence. It sounded amazing and even though show didn't get the music very early it turned out well. Bel Cantos (my girls choir) sounded amazing. They are getting bigger and better every year. Really they did everything I asked and watched my conducting. It was so moving listening to them.They sang Gesu Bambino one of my favorite christmas songs and I can't even describe the feeling I had when they were singing it. I hope that the audiance got the same feeling. Then I have Show Choir. They are probably the most creative group I have had this year and they talk alot because of that. They did amazing we had one mess up but I will take the blame because they probably were watching my mouth and I said the wrong word. After that we did amazing though. They sang Breath of Heaven and it was so inspirational. You could really feel the spirit as they sang it. We also sang White Christmas and Charlie Brown and everything just was so good. I am so proud of all my students, I can't wait to start on some Duke Ellington with Show and Some amazing 20th century music in Bel. The Girls are getting used to the 20th century and about half the girls love it along with me and the other half hate it. There is no inbetween. I will have to post a recording of it when it's finalized so you can hear it. I sang it in college and it was one of my favorites.
Have a great Christmas and see everyone soon in OREGON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas come soon...

2010-12-13T21:46:00.000-08:00

I want Christmas right now. Not because I want presents but because I want to be in Oregon, I really wish I could be at Springfield high Schools Christmas concert. I miss Oregon so much around this time of year and get so home sick. Then you add the stress of a Christmas concert and everything else that went wrong today to the list and I am just a mess. Hopefully my concert will pull together in the next two rehearsals I have.
I haven't been taking pictures because my camera is pretty much shot and I am waiting to unwrap the one under my tree. I am hoping by the end of this week that all the stress and anxiety will go away and I can enjoy the holiday season to it's fullness. I love Christmas I love the feeling you get, the decorations, the giving, smiles, snow (only around Christmas). Right now though it is just so hard to get into it.
I shouldn't complain becuase some people have it so much worse then I do and I really am blessed. I just needed to get some of it out so that maybe I will feel a little better.
Jaden, Natalia, and I decorated the real tree right after Thanksgiving week. It is so pretty and I love my Noble Fir. I pay a pretty penny for it but I love the smell and the look. Tyson is so tolerant of my little quirks. He knows that a tree is really important to me so he has always found a way for me to get one. It makes me feel a little closer to home because our tree is always from Oregon. It's obviously a farm tree but at least it's real.
Natalia has been really good about not touching it. She did a couple of times, same with the sheep in the Nativity and quickly learned that she wasn't aloud to touch it. She also took the liberty of unwrapping one of her presents. It was in pink princess paper so obviously it was hers. I walked into a little girl with the biggest smile on her face, I wish I could have gotten a picture of it.
Jaden, with Jessicas help wrote Santa a letter and put it in his mail box. We have this massive mail box with a massive santa on it infront of our Museum. Jessica took pictures for me but they are on her camera so it might take a while to get them. He asked for alot of things and alot of them he won't be getting. Kids always want the most expensive stuff and being teachers, well that just isn't going to cut it for expensive. But, we got him some of the things he wanted that were good deals and I think he will be very happy with what he gets.
As for Natalia as long as it's dolls, or anything to do with a doll, blankets, and shoes she will be in heaven for hours. She hates having socks on but she loves having her shoes on.
In a week and a half I will be in Oregon and I can't wait. I really need to get away from here. I might even turn my phone off once we are done driving just get to get away from all of Idaho. I really need a break. I love my friends here and I love my famiy around here but I just need some time away to regroup myself (and not from my friends and family, just with my situation right now). Not that it's bad but anyone who knows me, knows that I like things to go perfect and if they aren't going perfect I get stressed and when I get stressed my blood pressure goes up and then I'm cranky and then I'm crying or something so I just need a break.
I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday because I know I will. Hope to see lots of people in Oregon while I'm there.

What do you do when ....?

2010-11-18T21:27:00.000-08:00

What do you do when the power goes out at school? Well you sit around for an hour with your students with the flood lights and don't do anything becuase you can't see your music well enough. Then your school decides to cancel school and 1 minute later (literally) the power comes back on and the students yell hurry and they sprint to the doors. Then, we have school even though we cancelled it and have fun trying to get kids back into class when there's an hour left of school.
This happened today at Shelley High School. This actually is the second time this has happened at our school. It happened last year at the beginning of the school day and we deicded to cancel school then too after 30 minutes and then the lights came on a minute later. So, I sat in the office during my prep answering phone calls to very angry parents because we told kids they had to come back to school. What a mess. Well, what are the odds that this would happen to us twice? Probably not very high but it's happened twice. It was such a mess and kids were so mad. And, I think it's kind of pointless. Luckily my students were smart enough to realize that missing choir isn't such a smart choice since they are not even close for there concert in a couple of weeks. I only had 4 people missing. The problem is when you make them come back after you told them to leave they are done for the day so it took some pulling teeth and bribery to get something done. But, we did get something done and I'm feeling a little better about the concert. Just a little though.

Halloween

2010-10-31T15:42:00.000-07:00

I got to do my first school Halloween party. My mom always did ours and we loved them. I did the classic root beer in a black cauldron with dry ice that makes it look like witches brew. Then I made ppj sandwiches cut into bats, and finally a fudge striped cookie turned upside down with a hershey on top to make little witches hats. That was snack. Then for the activities I had three stations. One was a bean bag toss, second "S" is for spider, where they decortated a s into a spider, and third cupcake spiders. The way we seperated them into groups was I took my amazing cricut and paper doll cartridge and made little witches, cats, and vampires and had them laminated and put a pin on the back and the kids were all given one and they went to to their groups. It was so cute and they loved the pins. I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures but I don't know how anyone handle 22 kindergartners. I go crazy. Then in the evening we had a school carnival. My friend it the PTO president and my other friend is the activity coordinator for PTO. Well the one friend in charge of activities is moving and I have been elected as the new activity person for the PTO. So I felt like I really needed to be there to help out. Well good thing because people didn't show up to help like they signed up for so I was all over the place. It was ok I just didn't get any pictures again really, except for Natalia in the bounce house becuase I was there at the time working it. It was so busy and the PTO did a great job and the made alot of money. It was so busy.

I put my hair in dreadlocks for fun during halloween. People thought it was so cute and so me. They said I look like the hippy type. Now, don't worry I quickly explained that if you wanted to see real hippies you would have to go to Eugen and then you would realize that I was anything but a hippy. I also told them not to let my dad hear that. But it was fun to have dread and they were pretty cute. It took lot of hair spray and time though, and I don't want real ones by any means. I don't know why the pictures keeps on flipping sideways sorry.

Yeah Oregon Won!!!!

Natalia loved the bounce house.

I was asked to donate a cake fore a Carnival in Shelley Idaho for their cake walk. This cake was to be the grand prize. The week that it was to be picked up was super busy and I didn't want to make it to early because I like my cakes to be fresh. So the night before at 10 PM (the only chance in the week to make it) I started my cake. I finished it by four in the morning and it was picked up at 10:30 in the morning.

The whole cake is edible except for the pipe cleaners that I used for legs. The cake was a white almond cake with chocolate mousse and raspberries for filling. The outside frosting was french vanilla buttercream. I decided to not put fondant on it for cost reasons and time but I was acutally happy I didn't because the cake looked better without it personally. The spider was rice krispie treat covered in fondant and the orange border was fondant with some shine put on it to make it pop even more. I was way excited with the results. Like I told my mom when I finally started decorating I got in the zone and couldn't stop. It was a great feeling. I can't wait to hear what people at school have to say about it tomorrow. I know that's kind of prideful but it's fun when people learn new things about yout. and the winner was the person who picked it up. If you want to see more of the treats I have been making lately I made a blog for all that stuff. It's elisescakeshop.blogspot.com it's on the side bar of this blog if you want to just click on it.

Then on Saturday we had a war chilli cook off and trunk or treat. Everything halloween was done on Saturday because today is halloween and we live in mormon country. I was actually really happy to see that even the mall did their little thing on Saturday. I know people were upset about it but I think it shows the community what is really important. That's just my opinion. Sorry I don't have any pictures of the ward party but tyson was in charge of the camera. I think that explains everything.
I don't have pictures of Jaden becuase he was all over the place in his Spiderman costume. He wanted to show all his friends and he wanted the darn candy. So half the time I didn't even know where he was at. I tried to get one picture once but he wouldn't stay still.

Halloween Box

2010-10-27T18:50:00.000-07:00

My mom sent the kids a halloween box. I got a picture of Jaden with his stuff before I got a picture of Natalia but I must have accidentaly erased it so I will have to take another one.

Natalia decided to read herself a book.

Natalia getting on the chair to read herself a book

She loves that singing dog and the headband. Thank goodness it's almost dead.

Like I said she loves it and carrys it all over the house.

Natalias Personality/ Pumpkin Patch/ butternut squash meatballs

2010-10-25T18:14:00.000-07:00

Natalia loves the camera and every time I want to take a picture of her she moves in close. I need a camera that takes pictures quickly so that this doesn't happen all the time. She is constanty talking to her own pictures like right now as I am typing this. She loves looking at herself in the oven door and is very entertaining. But, this sweet little girl reminds me so much of Tinker Bell because of her attitude. So, for Halloween it will be perfect since her costume is supposed to be "Tinker bell"

So Sweet....

Then so stinkerish. Do you love the dress though? My Aunt Cheryl got it for her.

So one evening while my grandparents were here I got a new cook book and I wanted to try a recipe from it. We tried the meatballs. The cook book is alled Deceptively Delicious. What you do it you hide vegetables that you normally don't eat but know are good for you and hide it in food. These meatballs have a whole butternutt squash in them. The reason I wanted to try this is because we get this thing called bountiful baskets. We pay $15 every other week for a laundry basket full of fresh vegetables and fruits. Some of the things are things I don't really like and for a while we were getting alot of butternut squash and I really don't like it. These meatballs were amazing, even Jessica liked them. You would have never known they had squash in them. Anyway, if you want to know more about the book just let me know. I am totally converted. I also made casserole bread (my favorite. Thanks mom for the recipe), and homemade pasta. They're green beacause they are spinach noodles, but Jaden loves them because they are green noodles.

Last year I went down to Boise during Spud Harvest and took the kids to an amazing corn maze and pumpkin patch. Where we are pumpking patches aren't very popular. Simply because it's to cold here and the birds eat the pumpkin seeds I guess. So the one in Boise was huge and te maze was the shape of the Boise State Bronco. To see a picture of it click on th site. http://mazeplay.com/linder-farms-llc. It is absolutely AMAZING. So this year I did find a small pumpkin patch (very small) in Firth down by Shelley but the kids had fun with it. The corn maze was amazing here to and I want Tyson to take me again because I didn't get to go through hardly any of it because we had lots of little kids, which was totally fine. I just want to go again so I can go through the whole thing. This one is of a scout, again if you want to see a picture click on the link. http://mazeplay.com/wild-adventure-corn-maze Some of you might be wondering how they do this now that you have looked at the pictures. I didn't know until I asked a farmer. Tractors have a GPS in them now and that's how they run the tractors. Well you get these coordinates and you put them in your GPS and it stears your tractor and you just sit there in the tractor while it does all the work.

Natalia found her Tu-tu when I took out the Halloween stuff.

Rough Week

2010-10-24T21:32:00.000-07:00

I am so glad that last week is over. I'm not sure that I want another week to start though because I am pretty sure that most of what happened last week is going to carry over into this coming week. Let me give you an outline of the week.

Monday- Somebody decided to make life rough for me and that's all I will say about that. I didn't work but ended up being at the school the last half of the day beacuase of cross country and meetings.
Tuesday- I had to work and everything from the day before is still going on.
Wednesday- Locked my keys in my car and didn't realize it till Jaden needed to be at school. So we walked Jaden to school and he was ten minutes late, then walked to my friends house, barrowed her car and drove to Ammon to get Tysons keys and drove back to Rigby and walked home and unlocked my car just in time to pick Jaden up from school. Then I went and colored Temalas hair (which wasn't part of the bad week). Then I went to cross country practice.
Thursday- Natalia throws up in the middle of the night twice and then is ok. Drop her off at the babysitters in the morning and she throws up all over her couch. She calls me, get things squared away so I can leave school and go pick up Natalia. Thank goodness she didn't throw up anymore that day because I really hate the stuff. Made soup for a relief society thing and went to that in the evening.
Friday- Tyson took the day of incase Natalia was still sick because it was cross country districts. It was niceto have him home. Natlia was better but cranky and a little weak. I woke up at 8 and went grocery shoppng finally since we got payed on wednesday. While I was out I got lots of phone calls. What were the phone calls about? One of the students from the high school comitted suicide that morning before school. Unfortuantly for the cross country team most of the girls were friends with him and it hit them pretty hard. At the end of the day 2/3 of the student body checked out of school. I ended up having three girls not show up so I didn't have a full team. The other coaches were very understanding about the whole situation which I was grateful for. However, our principal came and supported our athletes even though we were small in numbers and gave them some goals to reach. They all reached there goal and he now owes them a candy bar. It was nice to see him come and support us even though it was a rough day at school and it really meant alot to our athletes and to me.

So that was my week and I don't want to repeat it at all. I just hope that we can move on at school tomorrow.

We are home now

2010-10-24T21:16:00.000-07:00

Well, we have been home from our trip for a couple of months now. Life quickly caught up with us once we got home and we have been busy ver since. On our way home through Montana we saw a grizzly bear on the side of the road. I have never seen one in the wild and it was so amazing. I'm just glad I was in the car when we saw it.
Since our trip Jaden started kindergarten and I completely forgot to take a picture of his very first day of school. I started work back up and have been swallowed up in school functions. I think it's finally starting to slow down now that cross country is over. The weather is finally changing and it is rather cold outside. We are supposed to get snow in the night, but it's supposed to melt off during the day. All I have to say about that is I hope it melts.

Dinosaur Museum

2010-10-24T21:11:00.000-07:00

I have to say that one of the coolest parts of the trip, especially for Jaden was the Dinosaur Museum.

This looks like a tiny building from the outside and kind of is but when you walk into it you are in heaven. If you know Jaden he loves dinosaurs and knows almost all of them and why they look certain ways or why they have sharp teeth. If you want to know something about these "creatures" Jaden is the one to ask as Grandma Arnold found out on her tour.

This was the only interactive part of the Museum and Jaden played with it for about five minutes and then moved on to the cool stuff.

Nataila Showing off her digging skills. Yes she is wearing Oregon on her shirt.

I still love rocks and minerals. I got to take a geology class at BYU-Idaho and loved the lab part of it. They had some pretty amazing minerals in there collection that I am rather jelous of.

I really want this one. It looks like and egg and is all spotted and then the inside is all sparkly.

Fossil Starfish or as Jaden called them "Swimming Stars"

Fossiled Sea Urchins

Natalia really liked the dirt part. She kept on going back to it. She could care less about all the big skeletons

Natalia being cute and funny.

It's a turtle. (Speaking of which, Jaden tried to dig up poor Tommy the Turtle to show to George, our neighbor the other day. Luckily I caught him before he found it. )

This picture needs flipped but you cn kind of see the excitement on Jadens face. He loved all the dinosaurs

Janie asked why this dinosaur had a funny looking head. Jaden quickly answered and told her that it made music to call to other dinosaurs and then proceeded to make the noise. What a smart little boy.

Look at his face. He is jumping with joy inside.

These are fish. These heads are the size of an adult body. I wouldn't want to run into one of those in the water. Look at those teeth.

The picture of this fish doesn't do it justice. I am not over exagerating when I say that this fish is the size of a medium size whale. It gives me shivers just thinking about it.

Jewel Cave

2010-10-23T22:07:00.000-07:00

We went to this amazing cave in South Dakota. It's called Jewel Cave. I believe they said it is one of the largest caves in the world, and they are still finding new parts of it all the time. There is several differant tour of the cave. We went on the five mile tour. It was amazing but also terrifying. I do not liketight spaces and the idea of being 500 ft. under ground was rather nerve racking for me. I am also afraid of heights and so there were times where we were on a bridge over a black hole and I'm not kidding. Amber would not have made it through. She would have had a heart attack. For those of you that have been to the Oregon Caves this was is alot differant because, it's underground (you take an elevator and have to go through special doors because of pressure), and it's a dry cave. Some parts of it have limestone like the picture below but most of it is very dry. I only took a few pictures. I as to focused on walking across black holes.

This very last picture doesn't do it's justice. I highly recommend that you google jewel cave and it's bacon strip. You can kind of tell from the picture but as you walk past this spot. There is a piece of limestone that looks like a oversized piece of bacon. The strips on it look like bacon, it has the ripple of bacon. It looks like bacon, it's very cool.

I am glad to say I survived and didn't fall into any black holes and once I was out it was a very nice experience. Now some of the other tours take you through to this spot that the space is so small that only certain people can get into this amazing room. I think by there measurment I would barely fit at the time we were there. Now, I probably wouldn't fit because I haven't been working out lately. I don't want to go there anyway.

South Dakota and Mt. Rushmore

2010-10-23T21:54:00.000-07:00

South Dakota was crazy when we finally got there. The huge sturgis rally was going to be the next week and there were harleys everywhere allready. It was way fun and so pretty where we camped. It kind of reminded me of Oregon with all the trees and hills, and it wasn't so humid.

We went to Mt. Rushmore one of the days we were there and it was cool. It's not something that is mind blowing really. It's really neat and amazing all that they could do and I'm glad that I went because now I can say I've seen it. But there isn't much to do there then look at the mountain. There are some trails that would be cool to go on but when you have kids that doesn't work out so well. Now, the crazy horse monument is going to be amazing. It's alot more money to go and see but you can see it from the road and they say that there is alot of interactive stuff there. It's not done yet but it was amazing so far just from the road.

Us in front of the mountain

This is inside the museum. It gives a history of everything

This is what the whole thing was originally supposed to look like but one they ran out of money and two, Lincoln fell apart while they were making his face so they had ot move him to where he is now.

This is the man that started the work on Mt. Rushmore. I don't remember his name sorry.

Joseph Smith Buildings

2010-10-08T22:51:00.000-07:00

It is so sad how little the Community of Christ doesn't acknowledge the presents of Joseph Smith. They talk alot about Emma and then there son Joseph Smith III. I guess it's becuase they really started when he passed away but they are missing so much. Anyway, we went on a tour of the Joseph Smith buildings. You have to pay $3 to go on the tour (to go inside the buildings), which are poorly taken care of anyway and you only go into three of the buildings. The Mansion Home the Homestead duplex and the upstairs of the Brick Store. The rest you can see from outside. The other thing is you can't take pictures. I felt like the whole time we were on the tour they talked down the prophet and then how amazing Emma was for just staying with him.

They have no idea what they are missing. Joseph Smith was a great man. We have learned from so many journals of his dimeanor and his service to the saints of the church. We also learn of his serving nature and understanding with those that persecuted him so much.

So all the pictures I have are from the outside that I drove around right before we left Nauvoo and took. I know the Mansion House above is hard to see but the sun was right behind it. I really like that you can see the actual sun rays in the picture though.

This was going to be the Nauvoo Hotel. The Smiths lived in it for a while but then the Mansion home was built for them and they moved over there. We didn't go into this building because the Community of Christ rents it out for parties and family reunions. I'm not sure how I feel about that. If you walk to the other side on of the windows has blue curtains and they say that is where Emma took her last breaths. I really wish that they would have stopped pointing out all the cool little facts and tell me more of a story of everything that happened in that home. Kind of like what the church does in all of there buildings.

These next pictures are of the Smith cemetary. Not all the graves are marked and they say that some of their dear friends were also burried in here. Emmas second husband lays to rest in the cemetery as well. They told a story about how the remains of Joseph and Hyrum were burried here unmarked for fear that the mob would come and dig them up and disrespect the bodies. A couple years later the river was flooding and someone was digging down by the river to keep it from coming up onto the land and they found the remains of Joseph and his Brother Hyrum. They are now in their final resting places that I took pictures of.

This is a list of who they now are in the cemetary.

This plaque is right in front of their grave sights.

This is the homestead duplex something or other. The smiths lived here for a while before they moved into the Nauvoo Hotel.

These are the grave markers for Emma, Joseph, and Hyrum. When you stand in front of these markers you can feel the spirit so strongly. Cemetaries are very peaceful places with alot of spirit and to add a Prophet of the Lord to that just makes it that much more amazing. I can't describe it. I can tell you though if you have any doubt that Joseph was called of God as well as Hyrum and Emma. All your doubt will dissapate standing by their graves and you will know in your heart that they were true messangers of God.

They rest right next to eachother connected. It represents to me of what the hereafter will be like. We will be right next to our family, side by side for all eternity. Emma never once left her husbands side in everything even at the hardest times. I hope to be as faithful as she was not only to my husband and family but to the church and to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

As we ended a tour. One of the ladies on the tour asked whey Emma stayed in Nauvoo. The answer that this girl gave upset me so much. She said that the reason Emma stayed was becuase of Polygamy. She just couldn't except it and couldn't go on with the church. It shows how little they think of the church but also of Emma, Joseph and the love that they had for eachother.

No one can say why Emma stayed behind but I do know this. Emma knew that polygamy was called of God and even though she might not have liked it. (Who wouldn't like it) She trusted and had Faith in her Father in Heaven and in her Husband that she loved very much.

If I were asked to give an opinion of why Emma stayed behind it would be this. She went through so much and had lost so many children on the way that she just couldn't leave the last love of her life on the trail and who can blame her.

The community of christ came a few years after the saints had left Nauvoo. I really feel that for the majority the saints that stayed behind in Nauvoo had no intention of starting a new church. But, all the leadership had gone onto Salt Lake and they needed the church. So trying to do the best they could they started a church but without the leadership it became what it is today. Now I could be very wrong and I know Emma had some problems with Brigham Young. I just have a really hard time believing that Emma just hated the way the church was ran so she decided to do something differant. After all it gave her Joseph and gave her the knowledge and ability to have them for all eternity.

Miscellaneous Nauvoo

2010-10-07T22:05:00.000-07:00

So when the RV thing whent down we ended up staying in Nauvoo longer and rented a house for two or three days. (I can't remember) it was a cute little home and as you can see Natalia loved the toilet paper roll. We don't have those in our house. The whole brand new roll was on the ground.

A pretty flower that I knew Jessica would like. They were all over the place

This should be with my Joseph Smith Segment but I am to lazy to remove it. It's owned by the Community of Christ of course and it is the Red Brick Store that is still used as a store. It is kind of cool inside.

We went on an oxen ride. I think I allready put this in there but I can't remember. I now know why people walked. It is so uncomfortable riding in that thing and it's so tiny. Oxen are really neat though becuase they don't need to be led with a rope or anything. You lead them by commands! Isn't that cool. And to admit my dumbness, did you know an ox is an over grown cow? If you didn't butcher a steer and you just kept on letting it grow you would have an ox.

Jaden finally got the courage to pet it with a little bit of Aunt Alexas help

Lexa I love your smile in this one

Trail of Hope

2010-09-16T19:40:00.000-07:00

On the last day we were in Nauvoo I went along the Trail of Hope in the morning. What a peaceful and sureal experience. You can almost feel yourself walking with them as they leave there beautiful Nauvoo never to return again.

This is the path they took and if you look through the trees you can barely see the river.

I took some pictures of a couple of the plaques to remember the events that happened.

This is a picture looking back at the temple on the hill.

Can you imagine having to deliver NINE babies in one night in those conditions. I would hate to be the person having a baby in that situation and I really feel bad for that mid-wife.

This is farther down the path almost to the river. If you look really close you can barely see the Temple. It makes me tear up just thinking of everything they went through to build a place for them to live and stay as a people and had just finished the temple and now had to leave it. I am so greatful for the saints and everything they went through just so I could be a member today and be sealed to my family. What a comfort it is to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints that is lead by a modern day prophet.

Tysons Family History

2010-09-16T19:18:00.000-07:00

I actually have no idea what these pictures are except that this property belonged to someone in Tysons family at one point. This is mainly for Janie so she can save the pictures to her computer.

Nauvoo Temple

2010-09-14T16:58:00.000-07:00

The Nauvoo Temple is one of the prettiest temples in the world. I think partly beacause of when it was built and where it stands. The inside of it is so beautiful and breath taking. It is so simple and elegant. It's the complete opposite of the Salt Lake Temple. The inside is very plain and then you have the spiral staircase. All I can say is breath taking. I want to go back just to go to the temple and see the inside all over again.

They said that it is 98% of the orginal design. I think the only changes I could see were the Angel Moroni instead of the weather vane and the inside for modern conveniences.

You can't see in my pictures but just below the third level the size of stone changes to a larger size.

I never noticed until one evening I was in this gallery that has a picture I want so bad. Anyway, the lady working showed me a picture and pointed it out to me and then told me the story. When the Joseph Smith was killed they stoped work on the temple. Then, Brigham Young had a revelation that they were going to be leaving the valley and needed to finish the temple. So, Brigham Young told the people they needed to finish the temple as fast as they could and told them to use larger stones to speed up the process. They did the same thing with this temple and knowing that meant so much more when I looked at the temple again the next day.

This statue sits just below the temple on the hill. It's a statue of Joseph and Hyrum looking over the valley for the last time as they leave Nauvoo to go to Carthage Jail. There's a plaque below it that says something about them looking down on a beautiful valley of a wonderful people. I can't remember it exactly.

Natalia just wanted to climb the steps of the temple.

I have a picture of all of us together at the temple but I think Lexi took it on her camera because mine died. Natalia and I had matching dresses.

Jaden with Audra. He has the biggest crush on Audra and so we had to get a picture while Trevor wasn't looking. :)

Carthage Jailul

2010-09-14T16:40:00.000-07:00

I think that out of all the places I was looking forward to going to it would have to be Carthage Jail. I get chills just thinking about the place. The church has made the grounds so beatiful and special. It's a great memorial to the Prophet Joseph Smith.

This is the pathway leading up to the jail. Along this path are a whole bunch of qoutes by the Prophet. It's an amazing walk because it prepares you spiritualy for what you will be seing.

This is the very first thing that you see on the path. It is Joseph Smiths account of his first vision. I can't even describe the spirit you feel in this spot.

One of the many qoutes on the path.

A statue of Joseph and Hyrum right outside the jail.

The back of the jail where Joseph fell from the top window.

Right before we enter the jail.

This picture is mostly for Janie. These nails are square, which means these floor boards are original to the jail.

Natalia was getting tired

When John Taylor was shot and the mob left. They were afraid that they would come back so they took him into the actual jail cell and hid him under the straw. This is what probably saved his life. The pressure from the straw and it pushing into his wound kept him from bleeding to death. I never knew that part of the story which was amazing.

Something else I learned was that the family lived in the Jail. It was actually a home to the sheriffs family. They had no problem with Joseph and found him a very nice person. They actually on many occasions would eat dinner with the family. It was rather hot upstairs so much of the time he would bring them downstairs to a small cell down their where it was cooler. On the day the Prophet was killed the jailer was out of the house and decided to put them upstairs while he was gone for fear that they would try to shoot him through the windows of the room. When the mob came in they stormed the house and the family immediatly left for fear of their lives. Then it continued with the account we know today. (Some of this might be slightly off because of poor memory.)

The window that Joseph fell out of.

This is the original door with the bullet holes in it. It was replaced at one point when the jail was bought for a house. Through journals they were able to find the orginal door and restore it to the same door frame.

The window that he fell from when he was shot.

This is the well that he fell by.

I love this gospel and I am so grateful for a Prophet that was willing to give his life for this gospel and for me. Because of him I am able to be a member of this church and have the knowledge and blessing to be sealed to my family for eternity.

Carthage Jail is a sad place because of what happened there. But, it has now become a sacred and holy place where you can physically and spiritually feel the testimony of Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum. If you can only see one thing around Nauvoo and you had to pick, Carthage Jail would have to be the place to visit.

We made it to Nauvoo

2010-09-14T11:45:00.000-07:00

We finally made it to Nauvoo late at night. The main road that you use to get to Nauvoo was closed and so we had to go almost an extra hour north to Iowa and then down into Nauvoo. Later we found out it was because the road was flooded. We stayed at a place called Camp Nauvoo. It's owned by the reorganized church but you can tell everyone there is pretty much LDS. The grounds keeper was very nice and respectful. He said "the only thing he has a problem with is that they never open the windows of the temple and look out. You have the best veiw of the valley right there and you don't take advantage of it." I did look out the star windows when I was in there because they aren't covered and it was very pretty.

This is one of the original sunstones from the Nauvoo Temple. The reorganized church has one as well that is falling apart. I believe there is one more but I don't know where it's at.

They have these flowers growing all over the church grounds. I wish I could grow them here.

We went on an Oxen ride while we there. Jaden thought that was pretty cool. We also went on a horse wagon ride. That was horrible. Natalia screamed the whole time. I felt so bad for everyone else and eventually they let Tyson off with her and she fell asleep instantly.

These animals are HUGE! Jaden was a little scared to touch it but eventually got the courage with a little help from Lexi.

It was so cool to go on an oxen ride because I learned so much. Ox don't have to be driven like a team of horses. You walk beside them and give them verbal commands and they follow you. It was a little nerve racking at first beacause what if they decided to take off. But the missionaries said that they are very calm animals and couldn't hurt a fly.

We went to many rebuilt buildings all over Nauvoo and the family center where they teach you how to make differant pioneer things. Lexi and I decided out of all the things we missed out of during that time were the bussel ovens. They are so cool and make bread perfectly. When I'm rich and build my own how I will make sure I have one in my house. (That will never happen)

I didn't pictures of all the buildings because they aren't originals and they are cool but only in person. They would just all be the same if I took pictures.

On our way to Nauvoo

2010-09-14T07:07:00.000-07:00

While we were at Adam Ondi Ahmen, we got a call from Janie and the RV had broken down and was being towed back to this little town about three hours from Nauvoo. She asked us to meet her there and then the fun started. We went to a chinese restraunt and then we were back on our way. I am not going to lie, this was the most stressful part of the trip and was really hard to enjoy because of it. But, we made it to Nauvoo and things eventually worked out after a car rental and Chris and Jerum coming and we all enjoyed ourselves.

(Sorry Sky this was the only proof of this part of the story)

Adam-Ondi-Ahmen

2010-09-14T07:02:00.000-07:00

Adam-Ondi-Ahmen is a large piece of land with nothing on it besides some houses and missionaries farming in the area. It's so peaceful though. There is nothing around it for about a half hour or so and it's just so peaceful. I will say peaceful alot because there is no other way to describe the feelings you have at these places. It's a conformation every time that this is the true church and you have no doubt in your mind.

Looking of a hill overlooking the land

The kids rolling in the grass. Natalia was covered in hives after that.

These lilies are growing wild all over the grounds.

This is the spot that Joseph found remnants of Nephis altar that he built.

They don't know if these are the same stones or if they have since been moved.

A path that we walked down just for a walk. Doesn't it look so pretty though.

(Before this we went to the original site of Hauns Mill. I don't have the pictures of it because Lexi took it while I was being attacked by a giant bug. When you get to it on the dirt road you can barely see it because all that's left is a stone saying where it was and it's over grown by grass because the Reorganized church owns it and doesn't really take care of it. In fact they don't keep up much of anything they own. You can't see the river or creek from the road but when you walk into the trees you can see it and it was very full and overflowing in that spot. When I get pictures of it I will share the whole story)

Far West

2010-09-13T17:40:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful piece of ground. You can feel the spirit and feel what a sacred place it truly is. You know that someday a temple will be built there and everything will change. I have to say though. It is in the middle of farming ground and there's really no town there. So, it might be a while till something is actually built there. I don't know if they will build the temple inside the gates they have put up to show the ground that was dedicated. They own alot of property around it and I have a feeling it will be put somewhere on that.

This is one of the four original cornerstones on the grounds. They have a sign next to them. You can't see it very well because of the sun that day but it was such a beautiful and perfect day to be in that special place.

There is this statue with the scripture and dedication of the ground on it. Natalia and Jaden really liked the wall and flowers.

Look at that adorable smile. What a sweet little thing she is. We always had water and sippy cups. It was pretty hot there and the humidity makes you so thirsty because you sweat so much.

I don't get many good pictures of Jaden. It's an Arnold thing. He has to always pose. But it shows Jadens personality.

Liberty Jail

2010-09-13T17:28:00.000-07:00

So the original Liberty Jail is no longer standing but they know the place where it used to be and put a visitor center on it. For some reason I thought it would be outside of town in the middle of nowhere but I was completely wrong. It is right in the middle of town. The town is pretty much centered around it just like everything else in the area. It was a little hard to get the RV to the place because the roads are so small but it all worked out.

This picture shows how tall it was down in the basement and the conditions. If you look at the bottom of the picture you can kind of see how thick the walls were. They were about five feet thick. There was a layer of wood then a layer of loose rock, and then the outside wall. So it was impossible to escape.

This is the whole of the inside of the jail. Very dark, no windows except for little crack like windows to get food and air through.

My father in law, and then right behind him the so called window down by the floor.

Gabe and Skyler

This is the front door of the jail. Behind this door there is another door. Both doors lock from the outside and so when you were on duty you were locked into the jail and couldn't get out until your relief came with the key, when in turn you would lock them into the jail. This kept people from escaping.

Us outside where you were hit by a heat wave when you walked outside. You can't live without air conditioning in this place.

Funny things that happened on the trip

2010-09-09T21:08:00.000-07:00

Well, let me tell you this trip wasn't probably the most spiritual, stressful, emotional trip all in one that I have ever been on. We never had a dull moment is putting it mildly. When we hit Kansas city the generator went out, we got a flat tire on the rv and who knows what else. It worked out well though because where we needed to get the part for the generator was just down the road from the place we were getting tires taken care of which was only about a mile south of where the tire actually went flat. Some other things that were so funny that I can still remember are, diamond sneezed all over Gabe, Dirk peed on Skylers lap in the car. That was the funniest thing because he was trying to tell us he had to go out but none of knew that was what he was trying to do until after the fact. I got attacked by this giant fly thing and ended up on Gabes lap trying to get away. Went mudding with the van (thanks to Lexi for taking over the driving. I just couldn't handle it) while looking for Hans Mill. The racoons tried to get on top of Lexi and Skys tent for the rest of the Dog treats. Everyone started getting sick at camp nauvoo, and Lexi got chiggers (those weren't funny things at all). I felt really bad. Anyway here are some pictures of the flat tire experience. I have to say though. We had so much fun in the van. I am so glad I was in there with Lexi and Sky, we have become such good freinds now becuase of it. Oh, we also passed the town with the Kool-Aid museum. Yes there is such a place. We were so tempted to stop.

How many Arnold boys does it take to change a tire?

Natalia being so good while the tire thing gets taken care of. That's Diamond down at her legs. That was Diamonds favorite spot. I wonder why? Maybe because of all the dropped food trying to keep her happy.

More from Nauvoo

2010-09-09T20:54:00.000-07:00

I have about ten minutes to put a post up. I am being really horrible about getting this stuff up but I think it's important to remember. Especially for the kids when they are older to understand.

This is the Winter Quarters temple. It's up on a hill and right on the temple grounds is the pioneer cemetery. I can't even describe the feeling of being in Winter Quarters. It's such a beautiful place and Lexi is going to be suprised but those horrible secadas, however you spell it make it very peaceful and soothing there. Any of you that don't know what they are, they are the most disgusting but in the world and lowder than ever especially at night.

The stain glass window showing the valley of winter quarters

My cute little family. It was very hot and humid there so you will see my hair up alot becuase of the frizz and blah of it. Diamond did so good on the trip.

This is the statue outside of the winter quarters visitor center.

Natalia and Jaden

2010-09-06T21:29:00.000-07:00

Jaden had his first day of school last week. He got in a little trouble for talking to much but quickly learned that he needed to be quiet. When I walked in to his class all his friends were in his class.
Other than that he loved his first day of kindergarten and has so much to tell me afterwards.
Natalia went and got her 15 month shots and check up. Tyson took her because I was working. She did good with her shots but learned a new work. "Owie" she says it all the time now.

She is in the 49% for heighth and 4% for weight. She weighs only 19 pounds.

On saturday when I got back from my cross country meet that was very successful. (My junior high boy got 3rd out of 116 and was the first kid from Idaho to finish) Anyway, Tyson decided to try and clean out the paper shredder with a steak knife. The knife slipped and went into his hand between his thumb and other finger in the webbed part of his hand. He came up to me and said, "do you think I need stitches?" When I looked at his hand I almost fainted. I could see the muscles in his hand. So we took a trip to urgent care around the corner and later got a movie out of the situation. He took us to Toy Story 3. Such a cute movie and Jaden laughed the whole time and Natalia sat through all of it except for the last 10 minutes. I was way excited because I actually got to enjoy the movie.

Sorry there's no pictures but I haven't been home at all. I still have two more weeks till I get a weekend.
I'll post all the excitement as soon as I can

Extra Money

2010-09-05T16:27:00.000-07:00

So, this post is actually more of a question. This summer Tyson didn't have a summer job because we went to Nauvoo instead. On top of that we want to start getting rid of some of our debt. Tyson is doing his masters online right now, and I am in cross country season right now. I really want to make a little money on the side but just out of my home.
I would like to start a bakery or cake decorating catering thing. Or I could sell something online. The thing is I don't really have money to invest right now, because the point is to help us get out of some of our debt, and I don't know how to get something started like that. Any suggestions? I would really like to know if you have any good ideas.
I know the cake decorating thing could probably work in this area because of the college, two temples in the area and all the weddings going on all the time. I just don't know how to get my name out there.
If you have any ideas let me know.
Something exciting though. The foods teacher found out that I do cakes and asked me to come into her advanced foods class and teach her kids how to cover and decorate a cake with fondant. It will probably be after christmas but I am allready starting to plan. I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quick Update

2010-08-25T21:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry, It's been a while. We have been so busy here and I have had no time to do anything except school stuff. I haven't had a day off until today and that wasn't even a day off becuase of cross country and my horrific house. I don't have any clean dishes and I finally have a giant pile of clean laundry becuase I was all out of clothes. I cleaned the downstairs bathroom and downstairs today, not including Jadens room and finally got done cleanning by 3 when it was time to go to cross country. How imberressing to admit that my house is actually that messy.
Other than how messy my house is it's been cross country, music, cross country, some more music and some more music. I am so behind what I need to have done for the first day of school and we allready started. I have had so many meetings during "planning time" that I haven't had time for planning.
We had our first cross country meet and my students had a blast. It was the famous mud run in the area. They decided to get me muddy this year and almost broke my camera. Thank goodness I finally got it working again. I will post pictures later. Give me some time to get caught up. You need to be patient though becuase I don't have a weekend for another three weeks. Ugh.

Trevor and Audras wedding cake

2010-08-15T13:24:00.000-07:00

This was left over cake mix that I made into cupcakes. They are a raspberry cupcake with chocolate ganache frosting

The cake didn't really lean it was the table. We decided that fresh cut flowers are the prettiest. Her colors were a dark purple and that yellow.

Trevor and Audra cutting the cake

Some of the detail work up close

I embossed the fondant and made diamonds and then put sugar pearls in the corners.

There will be better pictures to come from another camera but I really want to show off the masterpiece. Unfortuantly I wasn't able to put on the fifth tier because of some lopsided problems so we decided to take out the Fourth tier and it ended up lookin really nice. It was also nice because then I didn't have to cut into the cake right away becasue of the the teir being left out we precut that and the cake was able to look pretty alot longer. Anyway enjoy the pictures that I was able to take. Lexi (my sisster-in-law) helped me with the flowers. She saved my life!!!! I was so upset about the crooked fourth tier that I didn't know what to do. I was planning on using flowers but I just didn't know how to fix it. I had an idea in my head and it was being altered and I dind't know what to do. THANKS LEXI
By the way the tiers were
Raspberry cake with chocolate ganache
White almond cake with raspberry filling and buttercream frosting
Carrot Cake with cream cheese frosting
and a Black Forest Torte (the devil of my life)

I had people staying around just so they could taste each layer. The secret.... Allrecipes.com

Martins Cove

2010-08-12T11:05:00.000-07:00

Our first adventure was making our way up to Martins Cove. It is in the middle of no where and takes some time to get up there even from Idaho. We left around Midnight on Saturday, July 22nd. We had decided to drive all night which was ok because I didn't drive. However, while driving we ran into alot of deer on the road that we so graciously scared off the road for the rv behind us. Later on the RV decided to take the lead and the van (which I was in) followed. Very shortly after this decision a large Moose decided that the right time to cross the road was five feet infront of the RV. Good thing Kelly (Tysons Dad) was driving because that Moose walked away unharmed. We finally arrived at Martins Cove. We were running a little late so we didn't do any hiking. If you have ever been to Wyoming though you know how ugly it is. It is so dry there, in the winter though it is freezing and covered in snow. It was a very solem place to be. I am so grateful for modern day conveniences. I don't know how anybody survived that area for any length of time. There are no trees and the only shelter is between swelsl in the so called mountain, which aren't very big.

Recital Cake

2010-07-21T20:44:00.000-07:00

I made a recital cake for my friend Temalas Senior Vocal Recital. This is the cake I came up with.

The bottom tier was a chocolate fudge cake with chocolate ganache frosting and sprinkled with raspberries for some flavor other than chocolate. The top tier was a lemon cake with a raspberry danish dessert in the middle and plain buttercream frosting. I was pretty excited about the way it turned out. All the designs besides the leaf had to be hand cut because I couldn't find a flower petal to save my life. The bow was alot of work for something that just got thrown away right away but that's ok because it added the finishing touch to the cake that it needed. To get the black that black I painted the fondant with black gel food coloring. I really enjoy this cake making thing and I can't wait to try a five tier wedding cake. I would like to make it square but I would have to buy all new pans. If I make it circular than I only have to by the two larger pans.

Ice Cream and Swimming

2010-07-21T20:30:00.000-07:00

This girl is like her Aunt Alexa. She loves Ice Cream!!!!!

Isn't this picture priceless. She is looking right at the camera with such a cute face. She is such a good picture taker

The other thing she loves is swimming. I can't look away for two seconds because she is fearless. Do you like her crazy hair?

This was one of my outfits when I was little. It was cute on her but she kept on pulling at the bonnet so we took it off so it didn't get ruined.

Birthday and Fourth

2010-07-18T22:38:00.000-07:00

This is what I woke up to the morning after my birthday. One day my students followed me home from a function and now know where I live. I got 25 forks and some toilet paper and shaving cream on my lawn. At least I know they love me and it gave Jaden someting to do when it needed cleaned up. Another one of my students saw me at walmart, whent and found my car and left me a birthday not on my car for me. Now if they could be that sweet in the classroom :)Every year we go to the fireworks on the river. I make sure we get an awesome spot. I am usually there by noonish and stay till the fireworks show. We are right under them. This year I got something in my eye and it decided to stay with me a couple of days. THAT HURT! Natalia fell asleep right when the fireworks started. She liked the ones at rigby lake though the day before. We always go with our friends and their kids. You can tell we are all having fun.

Ice Cream

2010-07-18T22:29:00.000-07:00

Natalia loves ice cream. There is this place called reeds dairy. Jaden loves it and whenever we have visitors we take them here. It's a full function dairy and right where they milk the cows they also sell fresh made ice cream. The cows are right outside the shop and they have other animals. You can watch them milk them and Jadens favorite, see the baby cows. I know I don't have pictures of Jaden but many of you know he runs around so much I can barely catch him half the time. Natalia stole her daddys cone. This is the don't you dare touch my ice cream and try and clean me up look. We got that look more than once.

Oregon Trip.

2010-07-18T22:21:00.000-07:00

I took lots of picture in Oregon. These are our crabs that we ate for dinner after we caught them. I don't know why this picture is upside down but I am not in the mood for fixing it right now. Natalia loved playing in the water at Grandma and Grandpa Drakes. She always likes playing in the water though. As you can see Jessica is helping with the situataion. Isn't my little girl cute? She loves sitting in chairs and loves rocking her baby dolls. I love her little pigtails in this picture. I love having a baby girl. I went to the Oregon Store by autzen of course. I had to take a picture just for my co worker Lynda. She's a Utes fan. I think I will blow this picture up and hang it above her desk before the beginning of the school year. This was my kids first time to the ocean and Tysons first time being able to see it because there was no fog. It was such a gorgeous day. You won't believe it but there was no wind and we actually had short sleeves for a while. The sun was out and no clouds. I don't know where my actual ocean picture whent to but here is the bay and dock. Our lovely crabs that Nathan caught for us. Jaden thought it was so cool. I have to admit that I really enjoy it to. The kids eating saltwater taffy from good old Depoe Bay. While they were all out on the dock I snuck away and drove up to Depoe Bay for about and hour or so. I couldn't resist that it was only 15 minutes away since I drive that much to get to Idaho Falls. I miss that place. One of these days I would like to take my family to stay there for a week. We also caught a starfish in the crab nets and Stef and I decided it was a good thing to keep. (I don't know if she felt that way but she pretended to at least.) I started drying it out at my parents but I don't know what has since happened to it. Nathan was supposed to let it finish drying out and then send it to me.

I took lots of pictures in Oregon.

Pink Hair

2010-07-18T22:02:00.000-07:00

Right before we went to Oregon Jessica put pink in my hair for fun. I really like it and have since done it again becuase it washed out pretty fast especially since my hair is allready bleached.

Many Pictures to come

2010-07-18T21:58:00.000-07:00

I am going to work on getting everything posted and up to date. Especially since in a couple of weeks I am going to want to put pictures of our trip of Nauvoo up. Give me the week but pretty soon you will know everything. I will start from the beginning and work up to now. Hopefully it doens't take very long.

Eternal Families

2010-07-17T22:27:00.000-07:00

Last week on I believe Friday, a little girl that is a month older than Natalia fell into a canal here in Rigby. Here's the story. This little girls grandparents were watching her for the day. They went outside with her and about two minutes later couldn't find her. They called the police and told them that their 16 month old grandaughter was missing and are afraid she fell in the canal on their property. Just down the canal a member of our bishopric was standing in the canal for some reason instead of being at the church helping his wife set up their daughters reception for the next day. While he was in the canal something hit his leg. He thought it was a piece of garbage so he bent down to pick it up. When he picked it up it was this little girl. She had been in the canal for about 15 minutes. They flew her to Salt Lake. On Saturday at 5 PM she opened her eyes and looked around. Yesterday evening she passed away. It is so gut renching and our member of the bishopric was having a hard time with the whole thing. He looked at Natalia and said, "she is exactly that age and started to tear up." She survived for about a week. Jessica and I were talking about why he was in the canal. We though maybe so she would make it through this, and then she didn't. Then we decided that it was probably so she could be found and her family would have enough time to say goodbye to their sweet little angel. It made me cry when I heard she had passed away.
Tysons parents have a canal in their front yard and while it's very pretty it terrifies me. Jaden was so afraid of the water he would have never gotten near it. Natalia how ever is not afraid of the water. It's like a fish when she sees it. I usually make the kids play in the back so I don't even have to worry about the canal . I just have to make sure they don't go past the house. I will be their after Nauvoo for the reception because I am making the wedding cake. I think I will bring the monkey leash thing and make sure she is by my side at all times.
It is so sad when little babies pass away. I am so glad that I know and that the family that just lost their little girl are LDS. What a comfort it is to know that we have eternal families and that if we live righteously we will be able to raise them in the life to come. I don't know how people go on through life without the knowledge of eternal families. I think that is one of those things that keeps you going through this life. I have no doubt that they miss her and have alot of pain. Please pray for their little family, their name is the Zollingers. Paul Mitchell hair academy in rexburg just raised $1600 today at a car wash to help the family.
Anyway, please keep them in your prayers.

Update

2010-07-16T20:59:00.000-07:00

I promise to get pictures up soon. We have been so busy and gone alot. We went to Oregon for Nathans graduation. While we were there we celebrated Jadens birthday and my mom made him a cake with a ninja turtle head on it. I got a cricut for my birthday. We went to Newport and went to the beach and crabbing. I went to Depoe Bay for about and hour or so while the boys froze on the dock. They ended up catching four crabs and a star fish.
We came home from our fun trip in Oregon to cold weather, not very interesting idaho. We have since been going to the lake alot and swimming alot. Today was 93 outside. Very hot! Especially for this area.
We are getting ready to go to Nauvoo, Palmyra, Mt. Rushmore, and Niagra Falls in a week. We are going for Trevor and Audras wedding. I am so excited to get another sister-in-law. I love her, she is so nice and Jaden has a huge crush on her. They usually come for dinner on Sunday and Jaden gets so excited.
They will be getting married in the Nauvoo temple on July 31st.
We are getting ready for school to start on August 15th. I know it's ridiulous. I'm just glad that I am part time so I can still go to the lake every other day for the most part. I will still be coaching cross country and I am trying to get that all ready before we leave becuase that starts August 13th and I don't get back till the 7th and it is so hard to get kids to come to practice before school starts. I don't know why because when I was doing it, it wasn't a question and it wasn't the coaches that got mad about it, it was the other runners. Maybe because my team was good at the time. I will admit my team is one of the worst in the area. I take at least one runner to state every year but they are way ahead of the rest of my team and every coach I talk to says that they got a fast team because of one successful runner and everyone wanted to be like them. They tell me to give it time and it will start to grow on it's own. Especially with what the previous coach was like, but I don't really have time. The school wants to see it grow now and I am trying but running isn't a big thing here. If it were Eugene it might be differant. I think we will have a bigger success this year with numbers, but we shall see.

Natalia Playing the Piano

2010-05-27T14:44:00.000-07:00

Natalia loves playing the piano and singing. I wonder where she got that from? If you listen you can here her say "uh-oh and no no"

Promised Pictures

2010-05-27T14:35:00.001-07:00

These hamburgers are equal to 4 regular sized burgers squished into one. I tried to get them to put there head by it so you kind of got the idea. Mish got one with her little boy ad it looks bigger than his head. It's an awesome picture.

A couple of things

2010-05-26T22:39:00.000-07:00

First, my turtle past away. The poor thing I'm sure has been suffering for a while but finally went peacefully looking out my front window. We buried him my front flower under the bleeding heart. It just happens to be the easiest place to bury him. I had him for seven years and am now taking a break from the little critters until I have the time and money to take care of one correctly.
School is done for the year. My seniors graduated on Monday. They performed at graduation singing Come So Far from hairspray and everyone said it sounded really good. The only problem with the gym is that it's hard to hear period unless you have a ton of miches. Tuesday was the last day for the rest of my students and I did my final again that my mom came up with last year. Each one of my students has to write a five measure song. They complain about it and tell me they don't know what they are doing, which they don't but in the end they have so much fun. Some of those songs are very interesting. I have had screamo about how I rock, this year I had one about a magical elf that didn't like to go to bed, (I think I am going to use that one as a warmup next year), and then I have ones that surprise me on how talented they really are. Thanks mom for the great idea. I finished up today and am relieved. I like my summer vacation. My coaching position is still intact despite many talks of it being cut or being for free. Somehow we were able to dodge the bullet and I will be fully funded this next year. I have a year to prove that this program is worth keeping. Please keep it in your prayers. My teaching position is still intact the only loss I am facing is a 15% cut in my music budget and a 2% pay cut.
As hard and as stressful as it was for Tyson not to have a position at his school next year, it has come to be a blessing. The district that Tyson is moving to will not be taking a cut at all and he will be teaching what he actually got his degree in. We just found out yesterday that Tyson passed the middle school math praxis exam. Nice to have if something happens next year. Maybe another math position will open in Sisters Oregon. He is still working on his masters in math but he is getting closer. I wish it was over though.
Tonight we went to Big Jud's. Any of you who have lived in Rexburg know the place. They have hamburgers that have a 1 pound hamburger patty on them. They are the size of a dinner plate. (I will try and put some pictures up soon.)
Finally, I have watched two amazing totally different movies in the last two days. (I love redbox). First one is Extraordinary Measures, and the second is Dear John. My students have told me that the book Dear John is a good book so I think tomorrow I will go and check it out from the library and read it. Yes, I said I am going to read a book. I did read the twilight series. Then I finally broke down and read harry potter, but skipped the first one because I just couldn't get into it. I also read a long time ago The Children of the Promise, and Hearts of the Children series. Anyway, I know some of you think I don't read but I read sometimes. I read lots of poorly written papers and well written, and some "what the heck is this" music all day.

My Little Princess

2010-05-22T23:22:00.001-07:00

Natalia has figured out she is a princess. She found the tiarra from her birthday in her room and put it on all by herself. In fact, Natalia hates things on her head and usually pulls them off but not the tiarra. Yes she is in christmas pajamas, they still fit her so why not still get some good use out of them. Especially when they were to big for her at christmas time so she didn't wear them.

Job Update

2010-05-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

Tyson found a job!!!! He will be teaching at rocky mountain middle school in Idaho Falls. He actually did his student teaching there when the current principal was the vice principal. She is an amazing principal and teacher. She taught relief society in our previous ward before the split and I always looked forward to her lessons.
He will be teaching social studies, which is what he has a degree in. He is still working on his masters but has really been focusing on just finding a job here right now.
We are still taking some cuts all over the board and my school district is having a hard time making a decision, but we are getting there and are being optimistic as possible.
People are complaining and I know it's hard but hey you have a job.
Anyway, I want to thank everyone and anyone that had us in your prayers and thoughts. We are so grateful to you.

Darnit!

2010-05-06T21:41:00.000-07:00

Well, I am embarrassed to say this but I need to own up somewhere to get myself back on track.
As you all know I lost 20 pounds. Well right after that Tyson lost his position for next year, I went to post falls for state solo and some other busy things so I didn't follow my diet at all. I would like to say not as well as I should have which is true but I didn't pay any attention to it. I have gained back 3 pounds and on days where I am not drinking enough water about 7 pounds.
So, in order to get me back in my good habits and on my weight loss and exercise goals I need to write it down so I will hold myself accountable.
Thanks for listening. :)

Cuter Picture

2010-04-26T08:58:00.000-07:00

Jaden was nice enough to go get my purse which had my camera in it so here is a better and way cute of Natalia. She fell asleep in her doorway. If only every night could be that easy.

My Baby Girl

2010-04-26T08:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's not a very good picture, it's from the web cam on the computer. I got a new computer and it's so much fun but that's not the reason for the bad picture. I had an anxiety attack last night and they make me extremely exhausted and physically ill feeling for the next 24 hours. I am sitting on the couch letting the kids watch tv. I'm such a bad mother. Natalia had her doctors appointment on thursday and she again didn't like her shots. She is growing but not gaining much weight. They aren't really concerned about it. She looks happy and healthy.
She has started to throw some serious tantrums. I swear she heard the doctor say tantrum and brought it to a whole new level. Don't try out of sight out of mind with her, it doesn't work.

Height: 29 1/4 (57 percentile)
Weight: 17 lb. 15.5 ounces (7 percentile)
Head: 44 (44 percentile)

She takes a couple of steps without holding on but still isn't sure about it. She likes comfortable and familiar.
She has a little stuffed bunny that she carries around alot.
Loves the cat (it's not mututal though so we try to keep them seperate for boths best interest.)
Loves to sing as my students found out the other day.
Favorite person is probably daddy, but sometimes mommy
Loves being outside and eating the dirt.
Curious about the darn ants that I can't seem to get rid of in the house right now. Hopefully they don't go in her mouth.
Finally will take a sippy cup.
Hates her headbands.
Loves chocolate, thanks to Grandma Arnold :)
Loves the kitchen but we are doing better about pulling things out.
Screamed in church yesterday for fun and everyone started to laugh. Which in turn she gave a big smile and was so proud of herself. Hopefully it doesn't become a habit.
Still has hives but we are working on that. We are testing detergent right now. It might be when she get a virus she gets hives though. Everytime they get really bad she has a fever or something. I haven't really figured out the link and the doctors think it's just coincidince.

Teacher Job Cuts

2010-04-19T20:02:00.000-07:00

As many of you know Tyson and I are both teachers in our area. Tyson is full time and I am part time. I love being part time because it's more of a hobby than anything else and I can be home with my family. As far as we know I still have my position at my school and will have it. My district has allready let those people not returning know they don't have a job next year. However, Tyson might not have a job next year. They are trying to get him a place in the district but it isn't 100% going to happen. It all depends on whether he can pass the basic math praxis exam on Saturday. We need your prayers. Right now we would like to stay here and get a little more of our debt taken care of before we move. With that said, we will move where we have to so if you hear of jobs in social studies/math we would love to hear about them. Especially if they are in Oregon or Boise area. Please pray that we will know what to do and if we have to move that opportunities will open up.
This is extremely hard for me right now and don't really want to talk much about it. I love my job and if we move I know that I probably won't find another part time music position. I have worked really hard to get the choirs to the point that I have and want to watch them as they grow into the huge program I envision. I know that is extremely selfish but right now I can't help it. I am really struggling with the situation and have alot of opinions about it, and they aren't positive. I know I should be more positive but when your the one suffering from other peoples poor decisions it's really hard to see the good. I think my biggest fear is that I won't be able to give my children the kind of life they deserve. Right now that isn't much and it's ok but I don't want it to become less. Anyway, please keep us in your prayers.

1 Year

2010-04-18T14:19:00.001-07:00

My baby girl is one years old. We have our doctor appointment on thursday so I can't give you her stats. And, I will put a picture up then. Natalia can stand and walk (with a finger). She is not so sure about letting go of my finger when she is walking yet. She is a little twirp though. Today in church I was the jungle gym for her entertainment. I was so excited when she went to sleep. During sunday school.

Natalias Birthday Party

2010-04-12T08:18:00.001-07:00

Jessica took the pictures of the birthday party so you will have to wait for me to get those from her. I decided to try making a cake with fondant and layered. I have to say for my first cake I was very happy. I loved the colors and everything. I got the idea from pinkcakebox.com. It's cake company based out of new jersey and i was browsing one day and came across this cake on their website. I made some changes of my own. I used a real tiarra and princess wand instead of fondant ones so Natalia can play dress up with them some day. Natalia loves her little kitchen and is currently opening the dawers and pulling everything out, putting it back in and shutting the doors, putting stuff in the sink and taking it out. She is just so cute. She was the perfect birthday girl and put a show on for everyone. Some of the things she did. Lynda, the band teacher I work with got her a little stuffed dog. It got the immediate approval by going in her mouth. Temala got her a baby cabbage patch doll. It got an immediate hug and "ahhh". So Cute!!!!!! Janie got her a pekka boo pop up book and Natalia was just in ahh with all the action on every page. I made little princess suckers, princess wands, and paper crowns for all the kids to take home. Oh, I also made butterfly sugar cookies for everyone to decorate. The kids loved it and if they are anything like Jaden he is still playing with his crown and septor. Anyway more pictures to come later. Hope you enjoy the ones I got though. By the way, we celebrated her birthday early. It's actually on Thursday of this week (the 15th).

6 Year Anniversary

2010-04-12T08:03:00.000-07:00

Tyson and I have been married for 6 years as of the 9th of April. I really can't believe it's been six years. In those six years we have both graduated from college, had Jaden and Natalia, both teach in our dream jobs (just not our dream area), become home owners, adopted a cat and a dog, kept the turtle alive and tons more. Here our some pictures of our wedding when I was young and skinny. Now I'm not as skinny and young anymore but still having the time of my life.

Tyson got tickets to the Dodge National Circuit Rodeo that comes to pocatello. It was so much fun to go to a pro rodeo. During the summer we go to lots of rodeos becuse they have about every weedend in Rigby but it was so nice to go to a pro rodeo. Natalia loved the horses and just whent wild watching them all warm up. A couple of the highlights. One of the saddle bronc riders got thrown over the fence when his bronc hit the fencing, he stood up ok. Another saddle bronc hit the fence and fell over while his rider was still on. A bull bucked his rider off and then proceded to take out the bull fighter and stomp on him for a good 20 seconds. He stood up just fine and continued to fight all the other bulls. The little girl that won muttin bustin, when her sheep came out of the gate it took off for the heard and rammed her into another sheep, launching her off of the one she was riding. She was ok just a little shooken up. She didn't mind though because she got a trophy that was taller than her. All the sheep had pink ribbons painted on their rear and pink bows on the ears for breast cancer awareness. (It was are you tough enough to wear pink night). Another little boy riding his sheep fell underneath it almost immediatly and he held on for dear life as that thing drug him through the dirt. He eventually fell off as the sheep drug it's rear over his face. He quickly got up and spit what ever might have come in contact with his mouth.