Enchanted

I've seen a lot of movies with my daughters, and a lot of them were real stinkers. Of course I'm glad to go to spend time watching a movie with the girls love, but I wish at times the movies we see were a little more entertaining.

The girls were dieing to see Enchanted, and I fought them off for as long as I could. Over Thanksgiving break Suz asked if I would take them. I grudgingly said ok, but at the last moment tried to escape and have Suz take them. Instead we all ended up going with the Garces family. 

I went in to the movie with the attitude that I would suffer through it silently. I was more than pleasantly surprised! I can say I love it. This is not a recommendation, your tastes are different than mine. That being said, I had a great time and I laughed a ton. If your really want to try something light hearted and fun I think you'll like it. Kind of like "Elf." I loved the music, the acting was great, and little girls will love it. 

Sam & Swoop

News Article On Maya

http://www.abc4.com/content/specials/as_seen_on/story.aspx?content_id=779700d3-dc86-4e01-b523-8f41027dd995

Quick three minute news segment on Maya by ABC there in Utah. Don't forget to vote for Maya every day!

Fly Over

Night time Fountain

I love listening to our foutain at night when we keep our window open. When Suzi and I moved in she wanted me to rip it out. I think the whole fountain thing was new to us both. I must admit I wasn't a fan, but really wasn't sure I wanted to rip it out either. So I took just about everything but the fountain out of that bed and started over. Now we both love the fountain.

How does a garden keep you up at night?

See Suzi's Garden there at the edge of the patio. All summer long we had great tomatoes. Her garden would still be producing tomatoes if we kept trimming it back.

Late at night we would hear Luke go nuts barking, and running down the fence there. I would yell out our window for him to shut up, but it would only keep him quite for a couple of minutes. Then the growling and running, and barking would resume. Night after night after night. I'm not sure why we didn't get complaints. We deserved some. We found out one night at dinner that we weren't the only fan of the garden.

I guess our visitor came early, and Luke kept him/her running back and forth on that top wood rail. It was a smaller rat, but a rat for sure. Eventually our dog / part time cat caught the rat. Found it dead. Slept well the rest of the summer.

Without and With Traffic

Sisters Make the Best Friends

Well....some do.

Suzer on the Computer

Yes Even The Ice Cream

Ours is better.

Utah vs BYU

Though things didn't go our way this year (Our way meaning me and Sam way), we all had a great time. Stupid Cougars.

That being I still look great in red.

Our Layton House

Suzi, and I stopped by our old Layton House to see how the house looks. All the trees are growing up. Looks like the new home owner put a couple of trees in the parking strip too. Fun and strange to stop by. House looks great. I bet it looks fantastic in the summer! Good memories on that street. Great place too live.

It was anyhow. Suz and I connected with the Dopp's and the Kirkwood's for dinner our first night in town. That was fun. Anyhow, appearently just about everyone on the street has moved. Including the Dopp's and the Kirkwood's.

Vote for Summer! I mean Maya!

Have you voted for Maya today? See below. If the below text reads like it's somebody else who is pregnant that's because it is, and she is. I stole this text from my sister in law Angie Smith:

My niece, Maya, has been chosen as a FINALIST in the Gap Casting Call competition! Isn't that amazing!!! Out of 800,000 applicants, Maya was chosen! How cool is that?!?!? Maya and her parent's just got back from San Francisco, where Maya was interviewed and did a photo shoot with The Gap. I don't have too many details, but I will post them once I find out, as I am sure that it was amazing!!!
Now, I want to encourage ALL OF YOU to vote for Maya! Voting started yesterday and it goes through December 15. You can vote once per day and it only takes a second to do, so please vote! All you have to do is go to this link, http://kodak.eprize.net/gapcastingcall/?affiliate_id=2e, register as a new user (only the first time), and then cast your vote. There is also a link to this on The Gaps website (http://www.gap.com/) on the bottom right. There are four categories to vote on. Maya is in the Girls Category (3rd category) and she is the fourth girl on the list (Maya, Age 5). You can click on More Info to read a little more about her.

Mouth Wash

Sam and Hannah are a bunch of fun to listen to at times. They both really enjoy telling each other what to do at times. More so than any other combination of siblings in our family.
When we were at the hotel yesterday Sam asked if he could use the mouth wash. You know the stuff that sits on the counter in the bathroom with the soap, shampoo, etc. I told all the kids not touch the food items in the room, we would have to pay for those if they ate them. So he asked before he got into the other stuff. I explained to Sam the Shampoo, Soap, and other toiletries were our to use, and that he could keep it if he wanted to.
Hannah saw Sam stick the little bottle of mouth wash in his pocket, and says to Sam "You'd better put that back. We'll have to pay for it." Sam says "No we won't." Hannah replies "Well than that's stealing if your not going to pay for it." Sam "No Hannah, you don't get it. Ask Dad." I explain to her the how the bathroom stuff is ours to use. Hannah not wanting to lose this argument says to Sam while walking away "Well.....I wouldn't want to put that in my mouth after all the other people who stayed here before us did."
I liked this argument so much I decided to agree with Hannah "That's a good point Sam, I don't think I'd put that in my mouth if that were the case." Sam "Noooo. Nobody has used this.......right?"
That Hannah is a quick thinker. Gets it from her mom I think.

One Step Closer

Wow, I don't even know where to begin with all the problems I have with this judges decision. This article blows me away.

Hannah and Her Teacher

I can't spell Hannah's teachers name correctly, It sounds like Ross-toe-mel-ie, but they call her Mrs. Ross-toe. Hannah is having a great year with her.

Moses John Wadley

I've always loved the name Moses. I tried to talk Suzi into naming both my boys Moses. I have two Moses ancestors that I've discovered so far. Both on my Dad's side, and both from his mothers side.
Moses Payne 1581-1643. Born in Frittenden Kent England and died in Braintrain Norfolk Massachusetts.
Moses John Wadley was the ancestor that originally gave me the idea of naming one of my boys Moses.
I was looking at the 1860 Franklin Township, Missouri census tonight and I started to look at the dates and tried to imagine what life was like for him with the little bit of information that I had.
He got married in January 1860 to his wife Martha . He was 26, and she was 25. She was pregnant when the census taker came around in August. They were well along into pregnancy with their first baby due in November of 1860. They had a farm there in Franklin. The census taker valued it at 800 dollars, and they had 185 dollars worth of property belonging to their estate. A promising beginning.
Their son Leroy Sterling Wadley was born in November 4th. Moses died on November 15, 1862 at a ripe old age of 28 with one tiny two year old son.
Moses then Leroy then Jessie then Mary then Stephen then Sean then Patrick and Sam and Hannah and Georgia. One short life that has left so much posterity, but I would guess very few know anything about him. It's amazing to me.

The Derby In Lodi

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Well we made a good showing again this year. Sam and I always build a contender. We've won a some, and come real close on others. We won the Rain Gutter Regatta one year, came in top five in the Rocket Ship racing, and last year we finished in a controversial 3rd in the derby.
Sam thinks the guy who finished in second may have cheated. So does Sam's mom. So does a lot of other kids, but from what I heard it wasn't the boy that cheated. It was his parents that were running the race. It still burns Sam, whenever he sees the kid someplace he tells me the story. It's kid of funny. I was out of town unfortunately on race day last year.
This year we our car ran really well. We finished 3rd again. It was a close one too. Within a car length.
A couple of other races were really close! There is a photo of one race where it was a photo finish. Without the picture it was too hard to tell. It's a gold car, and a black and white striped car.
Anyhow good year. Sad part, that was my last year. Boy Scouts don't race, just Cubs. Sam will be a boy scout next year, and I've got no more baby boys.
This was my favorite car on looks. Sam and I did a good job. (And Suz, she did the paint.)

Valley Day Continued

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Lot of square dancing! Hannah talked about it for about 20 minutes straight without taking a breath. I think she likes it.

Valley Day

Hannah had pioneer day today at school. Not at school it was a day away from school. Sort of, they replicate school at a park here in town in a "old town" type of thingy. I'd explain it to you, but I don't know much about it. Except that they do a lot of old time stuff, and their lunches can't have any pacaged food. Patrick loved it when he did it. Sam loved it when he did it, and Hannah loved it and said "Dad you blew it. This is a once and a life time chance to see how it use to be!" She felt rather strongly that I should have been there. I explained that actually I have one more child who will go through 3rd grade, and maybe I'll catch it that year. "You better!" Good gravy, as if I don't have enough mothers already.

Spooky Fountain

Suz got some dry ice to stick in the fountain for Halloween.

Halloween 07

Remember Summer?

Da Gang

Lake Tahoe

Who's Driving?

Don't worry I think Suzi has an emergency brake pedal.

It's like the fireworks

I love being at the beach and watching the waves crash againts the rocks. I could watch it all day long and never get tired of it.

Puffy

Patrick told me that a buddy of Georgia's told him today "I like your spots." I like spots too.

Save The Rhinos!

Save the Rhinos. Just not that one. I don't like the way he's looking at me. Shoot him.
I read a bit of this article titled: "Hunter who trekked to Africa to bag rhino for BYU says trophy will help conserve the species."
I was confused by the title, confused by the first couple paragraphs, gave up, and thought I'd post a blog about it instead.
Not that I don't think knowing how to hunt, and butcher aren't good skills to have; just not that into to it I guess. Not like Josh Litchy. Now there is a guy that like to shoot stuff that moves. Kidding.
The article didn't really confuse me, I just found the logic a bit fuzzy.

AHHH! Children!

I came home from work the other day and Georgia said "I got the cops called on me." I laughed and asked her "what are you talking about?"



She talked at a million miles per hour, and I really didn't follow much of the story. I got some of the key facts, and then I asked Hannah "what's she was talking about?" So Hannah says "yeah we got the cops called on us!"



The first time through the story I didn't hear (and I'm sure it wasn't stated) that there were other kids present. So I asked Hannah the story, and I was still a bit confused. I kept thinking they aren't telling me something.



So then I asked Suzi "what the heck they are talking about?" She explained that, yes, in fact the kids did get the "cops called on them."



I love that all my kids refer to the police as "cops." What a bunch of hoodlums. I'd really be concerned if they called the police the "po-po." Then I'd be certain they were involved with the criminal elements in Lodi.



So here's the jist of the story after speaking to multiple sources. Suzi was having a meeting at the house with her counslers, and secratary for the primary at our house. There were too many kids so she sent Patrick, Sam, Hannah, Georgia, and a few other kids to the school around the corner to play at the play ground.



There appearently was an "old lady" (I wonder how old this lady was, I think it's a lady in her mid 50's who constantly walks for fitness purposes around the neighborhood while talking on her cell phone) on a walk and she saw the kids playing outside and asked Hannah "where do you kids live?" Hannah said "we live around the corner and we play here all the time." The lady appearently responded something like "well you kids seem lost/ aren't being watched." Hannah replied "My brother Patrick is over there, and he's watching us." Appearently Patrick was playing soccer out on the grass, and the "old lady" didn't find this response satisfactory. So she told the kids that she would call the police. She did, and then left.



The po-po showed up within a 10 minutes or so looking for lost children, and Patrick told him the story and explained the kids are with me. He said great, and off he went.