Fall Choir Concert

On October 18, 2016 it was Brianne's first ever choir concert at Alta! Woo Hoo! And it was exciting because she had also auditioned for a solo and got it! We were so excited to go and see her perform at Alta!

She loves being a part of the women's choir and loves her teacher Mrs Iund! She is also making new friends in choir which is wonderful.

She did a beautiful job on her solo and the other songs they sang were beautiful as well! I am excited to see how the choir program does at Alta with Mrs Iund! She is new this year and so far has been just awesome!

We are looking forward to future concerts! We went out to celebrate after her concert and went to Swig for drinks and cookies! Way to go Brianne! :)

DECK IS OUT!

On October 17, 2016 the deck was officially OUT!!!

We only had a day to finish the deck before the fall cleanup was going to happen in our part of the city so we had to amp up our efforts and so Chan went to Home Depot and rented a small tractor to help us with our efforts!

Carter was more than happy to help with the tractor! In fact he was EXCITED to drive it and learn! Chan is familiar with tractors etc because he worked construction in his early days so he taught Carter how to operate it.

We needed it specifically for the hot tub portion. It was VERY heavy and would have taken us forever to cut it up by hand and get it out to the curb. So instead we just cut some huge holes in it, put a chain through it, attached it to the tractor and out it went!

We had to drag it out in sections but it worked beautifully!! We also separated all the pipe that was in the deck and took it in for scrap and got a couple hundred dollars since it was all copper! SCORE! Brianne was a great helper with the clean up on the concrete!

Once we got the garbage etc off of it she went to work shoveling off all the dirt! A snow shovel seemed to work best! Once we got it all shoveled off we were THRILLED with how large it was! There was a crack in one spot, but other than that was in excellent shape! We're honestly not sure WHY they would have wanted to cover it up in the first place!

This is what our front curb looked like for a bit! hahaha! Thankfully it wasn't long before the city dump truck and loader came and took it all away! That would have taken us FOREVER to do without it!

Once we got it all shoveled off Chan got a power washer and we cleaned off the concrete really well. It took a couple of attempts to get it looking good! But it really cleaned up so well! And the yard looks SO MUCH BIGGER now! I love it! I wish we would have done it years ago!

Once I got it cleaned up I moved the fountain over to the area next to the patio and got it working again! I love it there! You can hear the water as you sit and enjoy the yard! Chan also built a gas fire pit with my help and we already had a lot of the materials! He ordered the gas fire ring on Amazon, but we had the pavers, just had to add the rocks! It turned out so cool!

We will eventually do more out there, but for now it looks pretty dang good! I can see us using this space A LOT more now!!

The cute fountain! We've had this a long time, but I think this spot is perfect for it! :)

Playoff Perm!!!

The Alta boys are always coming up with some crazy idea to do to their hair before playoffs. You'll remember that Carter's team bleached the back of their hair, well Will's team decided to get playoff perms! Yup..... PERMS!!!

But I have to admit, I actually kind of like Will's hair with a perm! Haha! I wasn't excited about this AT ALL, in fact I almost didn't help him get it, but then I realized that if he was going to do it I wanted it done RIGHT and not by someone who knew nothing about it! So I set his appointment for him and paid for it and when he came home I was surprised at how much I liked it! Hahaha! Now that it's done we're ready for playoffs!! GOOOO HAWKS!!!

Senior Night!

Senior Night for Will!

On October 13th, 2016 it was senior night for Will! Hard for me to believe it, but also super excited for him! He was actually a bit melancholy about the whole thing. I kept asking him if he was okay and he told me he was just trying to soak it all in. 

I think he felt the same was I did and he was having a tough time believeing it was coming to a close. But I will also say that he made the most of his time as a player! He LOVED football and loved being a part of a team! They are truly his brothers for life!

It was funny that he struggled with what to say when they announced his name. He was still in a place that he was uncertain what he would do after high school. A lot of these guys already knew EXACTLY what they would do, but he had no clue! So I'm pretty sure he said he was going to enjoy his summer and possibly travel a bit before going to college! Whatever! Haha!

 I told him it didn't matter and that he had plenty of time still to figure all that out! I just wanted him to enjoy this game and to savor this game especially!

Will is such a sweet kid and an incredible friend! He deserved a little attention today along with the other seniors for their leadership and for having an exceptional season! It has been a joy to watch their games each week!

I loved all the signs they made for the boys! It looked awesome on the stands!

It was a pink out and Brianne doesn't own anything pink so she had to borrow a sweatshirt from a friend! But I told her she should wear pink more often because she looked darling! She was ready to cheer on the hawks against Timpanogas!! And this should be an easy win as Timp doesn't have a strong team!

Carter was ready for the game too! We were having fun together celebrating Will and the team! :)

 Will and two of his buddies! They were looking very tough after an absolute stunning win! They scored 70 points to win over Timps 20. An incredible game for sure! That's exactly the kind of win you want on your senior night! WOW!

Our number 50 after the win by his poster! We actually took it down and brought it home with us and hung it up on our barn door in our family room! We thought with a win like that maybe it would be good luck for the playoffs!

Brianne is so proud of her brother! It was her idea to bring home the poster! I love how supportive she is of her brothers and all they do!

The senior group from 2016- some amazing guys right there! Now on to the playoffs!!! Let's go get 'em!!

With this win they were officially REGION CHAMPS for 2016!!!! WOO HOO!!

Goodbye Deck!

 A few months ago Will accidentally broke that board in the deck that is a different color and we needed to replace it. But while it was off I decided to check to see what was going on underneath it.

I have ALWAYS hated this deck and wanted to rip it out but we never did because we couldn't afford to put in a cement patio. However, over the years I noticed that there was cement under a portion of the deck but we had NO IDEA how big it was or if it was in good shape.

So since that board was already broken we took advantage and looked underneath and to our surprise there WAS already a cement patio under there and stairs to the door! Yipee! So we took FULL advantage of having two boys at home and we set a date to RIP IT ALL OUT!

Initially we thought about keeping this area where the grill was because it is where we kept our firewood, but quickly changed our mind when we started ripping everything out. It was so horribly made that it was literally falling apart and wood was rotting! We had almost the entire thing ripped out in just a few hours! And the more we took out the more patio we found! It was NUTS!!

But it was also VERY gross! Lots and lots of trash and old toys etc were under there! But we took out all the boards and put them in piles and kept on moving! It was super exciting to finally be doing it!

The best part of all this was that we did it around the fall cleanup so we knew we wouldn't have to haul away all this wood on our own. We got a good start on it! We'll be finishing it up very soon!

Temple with Friends

Starting in October right around the time that playoffs were about to begin a few of the seniors decided that they needed to be attending the temple. A text was sent out to players and some parents from these seniors saying how it is important that they be attending the temple to help them stay focused on service and be doing all they can for the Lord so that they can hopefully do well into the playoffs. I was proud that Will wanted to participate so he went and updated his recommend and started going with his close friends on Tuesday mornings early before school. And they would usually attend the Oquirrh mountain temple instead of Draper because it was his friend Parker's favorite. I asked him to take a photo of him and his friends, but he never remembered to do it! But I am so grateful that he participated and that he had that special time with friends in the temple and sharing breakfast each week. What a special memory he will have with them forever!

Homecoming Dance

Homecoming 2016 was a sweet one! Will asked Jazmyn to go with him and they have been friends since 3rd grade! They used to walk to and from elementary school together! They have remained friends over the years and he knew she would be a lot of fun to go with!

They started off the date with Top Golf! They had a fun group that all tried their hand and hitting a ball!

I'm not sure how well he did as he is NOT really a golfer, but I DO know that they had a lot of fun!

You can tell they had fun just by watching their Snapchat all day! Haha! Lots of photos like this one being goofy!

By far one of my favorite moments was watching Carter help Will with his tie for the dance! How sweet is THAT! Glad I was able to capture the moment!

He looked so handsome for the dance too! Pink is not really a color he would normally choose to wear, but he liked it and so did I!

Chan was sweet enough to let him use his Tacoma too! He was so stoked about that! Chan even washed it up real nice for him! Haha! I have to admit I was happy too because his little Honda was just not nice enough for a special date like this one!

They sure made a sweet looking couple! They looked sharp! I even got Will new shoes and belt to wear for the event. He wanted brown and I am glad because it complimented her dress really well.

This photo is exactly how their friendship is- super silly and fun!

These group shots were funny too! I was grateful to Will for making sure I got copies of them since I wasn't there myself!

I don't think it could have gone any better! They had a ton of fun and danced the night away!

October 7, 2016 Homecoming game

HOMECOMING GAME!! This one is always a lot of fun! And to make it an even better night Chan and I met my friend Jen and her hubby Gary at a restaurant for dinner before going to the game together and cheering on our hawks! Jen is a counselor at Alta, for my kids actually, and loves the school as much as I do! Her kids all attend here as well!

For the Homecoming game they played Provo and we expected it to be a tough game. Last year Provo just killed our varsity team so we had a lot to make up for! AND it was our homecoming game so we REALLY didn't want to lose! But With Brianne in the stands cheering her guts out, how could they lose!! :)

Will got a lot of time in this game too! I am certain it had something to do with how hard he had been playing the last week or two! He was really trying hard to play well for his coaches!  The team played fantastic in this game! Everyone did their part and it was a fun game to watch!

Alta won this one 56 to 36!! It was exactly the type of win you want for a BIG game like this one! We are so proud of our Alta boys and especially our number 50!! Way to go Will!!

Brig is off to California!

The same day of the Homecoming assembly we also had the wonderful opportunity to pick up Brigham (my nephew) from the airport and take him to the MTC! He had originally gone to Brazil for his mission, but after being in the MTC there for 3 months he came home for a while to work out some personal issues. It was about 8 months at home before he was ready to go back out again and this time he was to report to the San Jose California mission, Spanish speaking. we were thrilled to be able to be a part of his journey back out to serve!

Chan picked him up that morning and he met us at the assembly where he got to watch his cousins act totally ridiculous! Haha! After the assembly, Will and Brianne said hello and gave him a hug and Chan, Carter and I took him out to breakfast at Black Bear Diner.

It was so nice to be able to visit with him and to hear he and Brigham talk about MTC experiences and to hear the differences. Carter gave him some insight on the Provo MTC as well.

Then we were off to Provo! We had to go to the Provo temple and get the usual pictures of sending off missionaries in front of the temple. It was kind of a chilly fall day too!

There is two handsome young men right there! Brig was SO ready to go back into the field! It was an absolute joy to be able to be a small part of it!

When Carter left on his mission I took a photo of him by this sign! I just had to get another with Brigham! I think it is so funny! I am happy he obliged his silly aunt! :)

This was a sweet moment- watching Carter walk in Brigham to the MTC. It doesn't seem that long ago that they were playing xbox together and now they are growing up and serving missions..... wow, where has the time gone! I also loved the little cookie monster Brig had in his bag! So precious! These are wonderful boys who are going to be even better men! So proud!