The Greatest Generation

Ben, Aubrey and I drove up to St. George, UT this weekend to see the American Fork High School Marching Band compete (my brother, Devin, is the center snare), but before I post pictures of the kids and family, here's a little background on the band, their show and what's happening today:

Click Here: Salt Lake Tribune

You may have already heard on the news about the bus crashing and the instructor being thrown from the window trying to keep the bus from crashing. Even without this added depth, their performance is very touching. The way these kids perform is inspiring, but again, knowing that they play parts composed by Heather makes it even more meaningful. Here's a YouTube video of the first performance at BYU after the crash. It's nine minutes long and I personally could watch it over and over again, but you could could just skip to the last minute or if you just want a taste of the emotion of it.

I hope they are able to raise the money for Grand Nationals, or at least feel good about such an incredible season regardless.

Call the Alpine Foundation at 801-756-8425 if you want to help.

Here Comes Trouble

She gets into everything (you remember the pins). I'll have to go back in my archives to see if Ben was this bad this early on. Oh, wait. She turns one this month. My, my, how age creeps up on us.

Aubrey + Dishwasher = Mess

Aubrey + Water Cooler = Mess

Aubrey = Mess

So Much For The Tree House Video

I'm not even going to make up an excuse. I just didn't do it.

Onward: Halloween.

We actually got trick-or-treaters this year. It wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. Both MY kids were dirty, wearing only their diapers, the house was a mess and everytime the door bell rang, I was sure it was CPS. Not really, but it felt hectic and so I just turned off my porch light, brought in the one decoration on our door and blew out the light in the jack-o-lantern.... ah, sweet silence.

We did our Halloweenie stuff last week and yesterday - here are the kids. Aubrey's a lady bug and Ben was Buzz Lightyear (you know, the opera singer).

Tree House (continued)

Here are couple more pictures for today. I'm trying to upload a video, but I'm a little ADD at the moment.

Aubrey loves the treehouse too. We have to lock the "trap door" Ben uses to get up and down while she's up there though.

It's just a small, gated area for the kids, but Joel's done a great job on the details. More to come later...

TMJ

When I'm stressed out or anxious, my TMJ (temporomanibular joint) hurts.

Now there's a random fact, right? Bear with me. I have had some anxiety recently, which I know will give each and every one of you a little chuckle at my expense, so here goes... ...I'd just gotten back into the swing of blogging last week - I even had a little idea for something for Thursday's post when out of nowhere on Wednesday evening, Joel finishes the coolest little tree house in our back yard.

Yup - that's it. The source of my anxiety. A tree-house throws off my groove for almost a full week. Can you imagine if I had REAL problems, people? My jaw would probably fall right off my face.

Anyway, I've been afraid that I won't be able to do this thing justice in just one post... then all of the sudden, I realized that I could probably devote more than one day to bragging about my husband and children. So, here's the first installment - Ben's first reactions:

Oh Boy!Cars, too!

It's a Little Dirty Up Here...

Taking a Break...

More details to come tomorrow folks. My jaw hurts.