A Plethora of Fields........

After looking through my pictures I realized that maybe I'm a little too hard on myself about making sure my children get a "good education". What do you think? We have had studies in various fields, just to name a few:

Field: Reading

Next Field: Physical Education

Next Field: Mentoring- refers to a developmental relationship between a more experienced

mentor and a less experienced partner.

Next Field: Construction

Now this requires a little explanation: What you see before you used to be a screen tent that Grandpa couldn't put together. (I guess he was never taught to read or speak Chinese. Aw Oh, that's something else I haven't gotten to!) My children noticed all the butterflies and grasshoppers around and they needed a net.......Need I say more!

We learned about assembly line production. Grandpa bent the metal, Dad strung the nets on the ring, Aunt Jeneil sewed the nets up and the kids........

Well they were the testers, of course! After a little modification on the length of the handles they were off and catching!

So now we move onto the field of Entomology. This is Jax's speciality. He can tell you almost anything about any kind of bug you can imagine. Let's see how they did:

Oops, dad is confused! That's not a bug! He doesn't meet the qualifications! If Jax were here he could tell me what they were, and I could write them for you. But, be assured, you would be able to tell that what is in that net is not a BUG!

Way to go Jax! Now that's a bug! Or is it? I think a butterfly is a bug! Ahhh, where is Jax!

Next Field: Animal Husbandry and Bird watching!

Grandpa Boyd is the proud owner of 7 or 8 calves that are motherless and they need to be fed quite regularly. So he has employed the help of my kids. It has been a great and enjoyable experience for them. But, one morning after walking home from studying the field of Animal Husbandry; raising and caring for livestock, my children entered the field of Bird watching! Here they found three of these huge birds resting in our trees and Jax couldn't wait for me to come and take a picture of them. He informed me they are Turkey Vultures. YUCKY!

Next Field: Fashion and Design:

These pictures speak for themselves!

Next we explored a little Mechanical Engineering by bridge building!

Next Field: Civil Engineering Do you know the difference? I didn't, but I do now!

Next Field: Hydrology- The study of the movement, distribution, and quality of water

throughout the earth. We all learned that, in this case, the the water is moving down!

Ha ha!

That the water quality is VERY COLD this time of year!

And that it is distributed pretty much all over us!

Next Field: Geology- The Study of Rocks. Now if you know us well you will know that we LOVE

Geology and we study it frequently but none the less here Kenzi is

studying it yet again!

Geology is also the study of soil. Luke has been closely inspecting the components of the soil in Payson Canyon!

Next Field: Creative Arts

And last but not least, our favorite field: Culinary Arts, of course!

I hope you all got a good laugh and enjoyed seeing our crazy family in action. I am so thankful to be able to spend so much time with them and I love them all soooo much! They are the biggest blessing, challenge, and aspiration of my life.

Just one of many treasures from a book we are reading together as a family:

My highest aspiration is to be a clean, thrifty housekeeper, a bountiful cook, a faithful wife, a sympathetic mother. This is life work for any woman, and to be a good woman is the greatest thing on earth. To be a good wife and mother is the end to which I aspire. To hold the respect and love of my husband is the greatest object of my life.

-Mother

From the book Laddie, by Gene Stratton Porter

Life is so fragile

My heart is tender tonight as I have recently learned of the death of a super special boy who was in my primary in Wellington. His mom served as my primary secretary and is a sweet friend. His three sisters were also in my primary and Karl was their home teacher. They are an amazing family and have been such a great example to me about what it really means to have love and respect for one another.

Caleb Williams passed away during a scouting camp-out, when a sand tunnel he was digging collapsed on him. He was an amazing boy. His strength of character was phenomenal and very rare in a child as young as he, especially in this world today. He was so full of determination. He set his goals and worked hard and fearlessly to achieve them. He was respectful to his elders and kindhearted.

Jax had a special opportunity to spend several one on one hours with Caleb as, at one time Jax was wrestling and that was Caleb's passion, and he was good at it! Caleb was excited that Jax wanted to learn. He invited Jax over to his house and mentored him in wrestling. Caleb and his mom also took Jax with them on several occasions to Springville where they had wrestling practice. Caleb's many accomplishments in wrestling and other sports speak for themselves about how talented and dedicated he was.

His character didn't end with sports. I wish I could remember all the details of the little stories I have running around in my head about Caleb that his mom has shared with me. He was an exemplary boy and my heart is aching for his family.

Our whole family has just felt a hole in our hearts. My children have asked many questions and are saddened. It is so hard to make any sense about why Caleb was taken. We have to put our trust in the Lord. I'm certain their aren't many people out there with his strength of character. He is not done living and I'm thankful for my testimony of that. The Lord needed him at home to help him with something that only someone with Caleb's character could do.

I pray for his family. I can't imagine how they must feel. My heart aches for them. I'm thankful for the opportunity we had to be touched by Caleb's life. I know his example will forever stay with my son and myself.

This is a very young picture of Caleb the only one I could find in my files.

Pray for his family please.

Family, Fun, 4th of July, House, and Wedding! Finally!!!

Well guys it has been a while so I have a lot to say! Well maybe I have a lot to show. We are moved into our house and we now have the internet here and so I can get back to BLOGGING! There has been a lot going on in our lives. In June we had a ward picnic at the park and I have some pretty cute pictures from the picnic to post first.

We, as you can see, had a great time with the babies on the slide. This is Luke with his cousin Charity. We have the awesome opportunity to be in the same ward as my little brother Chase (in the first picture) and my parents. It is pretty fun!

As part of our summer we were lucky enough to have two of my cousin's kids come and spend several days with us! Nathan and Maddy were a great joy to have around! They are great kids and we love them! We love our family! We are very fortunate to be able to be close to our extended family! I consider it a great blessing!

Our 4th of July was fun, but uneventful! We weren't able to go camping for the Kraync family reunion and that was a bummer but we had our own little firework show at home with Grandpa and Grandma Greenhalgh. Luke was quite impressed with the fireworks but didn't want to get too close. He did like the sparklers though.

The day after the 4th we did get to go to our traditional Scofield trip to watch the fireworks over the lake with Karl's family. I have to admit it is not my favorite tradition, but my husband and my kids love it so what do you do? LOL

Does this look like trouble to you? Three boys with matches? AHUH! LOL

Finally we get a little respite from the rigors of the house building! Around the 14th of July the kids and I were able to go with Karl to Colorado! Even though we had a broken trailer! We stayed at Island Acres campground. It is a great little place with several fishing lakes and a little lake with a beach for swimming! We went on a bike ride along the Colorado River while Karl was at work and the kids had a blast playing in the lake. It was soooo good to get a way.

If you can't tell that is a little tiny frog in Jax's hand. They are all over the place at the swimming lake. The kids had a whole frog town going on in the sand. I wish I would have got a picture. It was pretty cute!

Jax and Jacee were chasing the geese. I told them to be careful but they didn't seem to be afraid of them.

I thought these pictures were cute. Luke and his sisters enjoying books together. Memories!!!

This is a picture of Jax smoking Chris's bees. Chris is Karl's friend and project manager in Colorado. He has bees, as you can see, and he was so kind to let us come over and see one of his hives. He even let Jax smoke the bees and see how they respond to the smoker. It was a great opportunity even if Jax did get stung! LOL Thanks Chris!

On our way home I was able to get a video of Luke saying some of his cute words. He has really started talking a lot the past week or so but I still have to try and post this video of him because it is soooo cute!

We had the very RARE chance to get to gether with my whole family for a short couple of hours one weekend and I captured some cute moments of the afternoon:

My beautiful Kenzi Kim with my sweet little nephew, Tanner.

Cute little Kyler!

Grandpa with all the little ones! They were having so much fun on that hammock with Grandpa!

Trent and Natalie were married on 8-8-08 at 8 a.m. in the Mt. Timpanogas temple. It was a beautiful day. They had their reception in Natalie's parent's backyard and it was beautiful. There was a couple of hours there when we had a blizzard. It was a bit hectic but, after lots of prayers, the evening turned out to be beautiful! Here are a few pictures:

This is my grandpa and ma Noyes with my sister Tracy!

This is the back of my niece, Kassandra, LOL! My nephew Travis and my brother Chad, and brother-in-law Kevin.

This is my Aunt Leila and Uncle Larry with their daughter Joann, her kids, and my sister!

This is just the beginning of the blizzard. We had to set the backdrop down and, as you will see in the next pictures, everyone huddled under the covered patio. Thankfully this only lasted about 1 hour.

Yes you are seeing correctly! I didn't even know Jax was standing in for the throwing of the garter and yes, of course, he caught it! It was pretty funny! We got quite a chuckle out of this!

Trent dancing with my mom. They invited Kenzi half way through the dance! It was cute!

Jax had a good time dancing with Natalie during the money dance!

This is a picture of the beautiful evening and the bride and groom dancing together! In the background you will see my little nephew, Kyler. He was less than impressed with all this mushy stuff!!!! As I said the evening turned out to be beautiful and Natalie parents yard and it's views were both breathtaking. To top it off they even were blessed with a beautiful rainbow on their wedding day!!!!

Okay before I end this VERY LONG post I will post a few pictures of our home. Which, by the way, we are LOVING! It is so nice and peaceful to finally be where we know we belong! We plan on raising our children here and growing old together here! We are still not all unpacked. You will see boxes in some of the pictures and we still need to get some electrical done, but it's still peaceful. I am so blessed I feel as if I'm living in a dream.

The front entry

This is our great room

This is a picture of our rock arch being taken from the kitchen looking into the great room.

Our railing in our house turned out beautifully, in my opinion, but Karl worked hours and hours on them. They were a nightmare, but now they are a dream! LOL

This is our master bathtub and below is the master shower.

I took this picture so you could maybe see the glazing that is on certain walls in our home. It is very, very beautiful and I get A LOT of compliments on it. (Thanks Bryan!) I love it! This picture doesn't do it justice, but it's pretty. It sort of gives my home the Tuscan style feel. That and the color of my trim, the railings, and the rock bring the most compliments. Nearly everyone who comes to see it falls in love with these features. I love them too! They are just warm and peaceful and inviting, welcoming! And if there is anything I want to portray in my house it is that everyone is ALWAYS welcome!