First Day of School

Today is the first day of school for Garrett, Aubrey and Megan. It is a bittersweet day! Happy and sad at the same time. Sad because my baby is going to school all day now, happy because my baby is going to school ALL day! Isn't that mean, I am excited to have me time again, it has been 13 1/2 years since I have had that. Happy first day of school guys!

President Garside

We are pleased to announce the new President Garside! Zac was called to be the Deacon's Quorum President at church. We are very proud of him. He has Michael B as 1st counselor, Zachary K. as 2nd councilor, and of course Ethan B. as Secretary. An awesome group of boys, they will do a great job!

Hip Hop Picture

Megan and Aubrey's Hip Hop Class 2008

Night Games

Shannon in our ward has been organizing night games for families on Mondays. It is called "Kick the Can". We play other games as well. The kids had a blast playing Judge, Kick the Can, British Bulldog, and we hear they played Ships and Shores after we left. It was great!

(These are camera phone pics so not very good, but fun).

New York Pictures

Mouse and New York

Well I am at home with three of my kids extremely jealous of Alan and Zac. They are in New York City as I write sitting in Yankee Stadium. I am very jealous since they toured Ground Zero and went to Ellis Island to the Statue of Liberty. There was an extra ticket to the game but time and children were not on our side for me to go. Oh well, he better bring me something good- just kidding-not I am serious! Anyway while they are away I got the privilege of dealing with a dead mouse one of my cats brought in the house. My way of dealing is to make Garrett do it, he had no problem with it.

In other news the trial date for our lovely check thief is tomorrow. Alan was going to have to testify but since she is pleading guilty they let him off the hook. I wish that I was there to face her though. Oh well, I hope we hear the outcome.

Happy 11th Birthday Meg!

Dad

Caitlyn, Camry, Bryn, Lizzie, Courtney, Megan J, Jaycee, Megan, Madi, Summer, Hannah P, Sammy, Aubrey and Garrett

Megan celebrated her 11th birthday today! We took her friends to City Park for swimming. It was fun!

Angel Moroni

We got to witness the most amazing thing today! The Angel Moroni being raised onto the Oquirrh Temple! Zac had been told by his old scout leader about it, Kent works on the Oquirrh Temple site. We almost forgot about it, we happened to notice while driving and remembered. The only one of the kids able to join us was Garrett. We filmed it for the rest of them to see. These are some great pictures!

News

So we heard from the prosecuting attorney about the check fraud today. yeah! It looks like Anita (scarey that I actually use her name) is going to plead guilty for trying to fraudulently steal from our bank account! We don't know what her sentence will be (Alan isn't sure he wants to know - we might not be happy with it). I think I might call the prosecutor though and find out if they found any info that might relate to our other fraud problems, it is probably a stretch but worth a try!

Summer is off to a great start!

Wow, summer is now in full swing for our house. This morning at 6am Zac took off for a week of scout camp (the time of year I hate, no cell phones allowed and mom is in constant panic of how he is). Megan and Aubrey started dance camp today, they will be doing this for two weeks 5 1/2 hours a day. Busy! They also start volleyball tomorrow which will keep them busy in the evenings for three weeks. Garrett and I had fun at the splash pool today. Then, the girls had the energy so we went, the pool opened up today in our community. I was pleasantly surprised, the pool had looked less than impressive when being built, but surprisingly big when we could actually got in.

Oh my word!

Amy, Mrs. Flitton, Aubrey and Hannah P.

Megan and Mrs. Williams

Courtney, Whitney, Megan, Summer, Kaili, Kenzie (top to bottom)

So we still have the good news that the woman with the fraudulent checks was caught but now we are told by the police that there was a second check that was actually cashed! I may go insane soon, please don't hold it against me.

On a brighter note today was the last day of school and the kids are out for six weeks! We will have to find a lot for them to do. Here are some cute pics of the girls and their teachers.

And yet again!

Well life is so full of surprises. The bank that we have our business account called us today and asked if we wrote a $3,500 check to a woman who was in the bank trying to cash it. We had written no such check and they thought that it was fraud because the check signature looked computer generated. Does it ever end! Anyway, they started to request ID from this woman and she panicked and ran. The bank called the police and for once the lady was caught!!!!!!!!! I am so happy, not only did they catch the bad check but they caught the person!!!!!! I was ready to freak out! The rotten part of it is now I have to go through the whole closing and reopening of a business account which is a real pain when you have outstanding checks. I am grateful to them for being on the ball!!!

Our own tiger!

Garrett had a great year! He got his Distinguished Dolphin award and was the only child to get perfect attendance! We are so proud of him.

Garrett and his friend Vinny

Garrett and Mrs. Collins

Meet our tiger. Garrett's class had an end of the year show today where they were each an animal and gave facts about the animal. Note the striped shirt and the paint job. It was a lot of fun.

Happy 16th Anniversary

Then

Now

Happy 16th Anniversary to the love of my life! I cannot believe it has been that many years. What a ride it has been and a great one too. Seventeen years ago I saw this guy at church who my friends and I decided we had to meet and look at us now. I kind of stalked him, poor guy! He didn't mind. We had a singles ward activity and I made sure that I got to ride in the same car as him, we have been together ever since.

Manti

Moroni in Joseph Smiths room in the pagaent

This is my favorite picture - Zac in midair

The Geertsens - Ian, Sam, Nathan, Tim and Karen

The Lassigs - Jason, Levi, Michelle, Orion (Kip)

We went camping with our friends the Lassig's and the Geertsen's. We went the the Manti pagaent which was great! We took our RV up to Temple Hill Resort that is next to the temple. We stayed for two days and had a great time, I even got myself to ride Zac's motorcycle if you can believe it. Saturday all of the adults ended up in the freezing pool fully clothed. 6/13/2008

Progress!!!!

What a day, I don't remember being this stress-free in a long time! Strange huh! We have spoken to the police twice in the past week and they are investigating! I am so happy!!!! They have asked the post office for the isp that the mail fraud came from, as well they are contacting the stores from the Christmas episodes to get surveillance tapes!! It is been six months and to finally know that someone cares is such a relief. Better yet, I finally was able to get all of the business and personal taxes finished! That in itself is a good day. Alan had a wonderful day at the shop today. I guess that is three, not that I am superstitious or anything. Have a great day!

Megan and Aubrey Dance Recital

The team at Axis Dance!

Aubrey

Megan

Sammy, Aubrey and Megan

Aubrey and Megan are in a hip hop class and they had their recital at Kearn's High. It was great, I will post the performance when I get the disk finalized.

Garrett's field trip

Perfect shot of the leapard

Garrett in front of his brother the monkey

Garrett and Maysen from class at Hogle Zoo

Aubrey's Field Trip

Aubrey and Hannah on the bus

Note the boy in white with his hands up - this young man is Aubrey's first crush, Garrison. He is a cute boy who defends her if anyone is rude.

Aubrey forcasting the weather at Clark Planetarium

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the men out there. Especially to our dads and the most important the wonderful man that my kids call dad! Thanks Alan for being the best dad our kids could ask for. He moved here knowing he would have to commute to work just for them, what an awesome thing to do. He loves them and is there for everything possible! Who could ask for a better husband and father in our lives! We love you!!!!!!!!!

Relief

Overnight our neighborhood got a nasty surprise! Between 1 and 4am someone went onto to five different streets all around us and egged every car that was parked on the street. The worst part is that two of the allies (here most garages are in back in an alley) are being redone, so there were a lot of cars. I would say at least 40 (not positive). We were lucky in that Alan is in California so his car that is usually parked on the street was at the airport. Lucky!

Dance Team

My girls made the Beginning Pre Teen Competition Team at Axis Dance! Woohoo!!!!!!!!!! I am so proud, it was a tough three hours of tryouts and especially tough on Meg since she got her braces started the day before and was in a lot of pain! They gave her a break and I am so grateful. The list is hard to see and Megan is listed as Megan Geertsen, oops. Samantha Geertsen (thus the name) made it on the team as well, congrats! Good job Aubrey, Megan and Sam!

Baseball

Zac's team had an amazing game this week, June 3rd. They played hard, I got some great shots but in true style my battery died and I missed the best stop. Zac hit the ball far out and got to first. The first base coach told him to keep running and he got into a pickle between first and second. They went back and forth three times before he slid into first and ended up out. He came home with a nice battle scar on his arm from sliding. He made 7 outs in the game and scored a run. Not bad for a tie game of 5-5.

Braces!

This one is my favorite!

What a whirlwind of a morning. At 8:30am we went in for a consultation to see what needed to be done to Zac's teeth. We came out knowing that he needed braces to bring his jaw forward a little and straighten and align his teeth. We also found that he has a tooth that has come in sideways up in the roof of his mouth. He will need the baby tooth pulled and a chain that hooks to the braces that has to be adjusted every two weeks to slowly pull the tooth down in line with his teeth. Not that bad in the end. We left and 5 minutes later got a call saying they just had a cancellation would we like to come back. Two hours later Zac has a full set of braces on. Normally the consult, front set and molar set take three appointments because of time. We got all in one morning just because they had extra time today. Wow! He looks good! Meg goes in for her consult on Friday, lets see what happens that time. I have signed away my life, I would say my first born but I don't think they would take him with this bill.