Crazyness in our Home.............

Oh, life in our home has been crazy. Thanksgiving came and went. We had such a good weekend. My brother Troy and his wife and daughter Karissa made it home safe from Romaina for good. They stayed with me for the weekend and we had a good time. Dinner was GREAT! We ate at Blakes grandparents home with lots of cousins, the house was full. I even talked Blake into going shopping with me at 3:30 in the morning for ROCKBAND for X-box, and yes, I got one! GO me! We are so thankfull for good family and friends. We love you all.
Well Kiel just got done with Premier basketball and now starts Jazz. Jordan and Kiel both had hoop-shoot at school and both took 2nd ( to0 bad they don't take the top 2 ) but did awesome. I am so proud of both of them. It kind of bummed Jordan out since last year he made it all the way to the State finals and did awesome. But for this year he says oh well know I can consentrate on school ball. Jordan started basketball tryouts this week and will find out on Monday or Tuesday if he made the team ( ha ha ), this year Blake has been asked to help with the 7th and 8th grade boys basketball team. He is so excited to help out. We will see how well it works, he tends to sometimes be too much of a "Coach" to Jordan instead of a "Dad". But none-the-less they both enjoy it.

Christmas is just a week away and coming fast. I still a lot to do and no time to accomplish what needs to be done. We have our family Christmas party tomorrow ( so i will be posting pictures from that soon ) it should be tons of fun, i am so excited for that. Have a good weekend!

Happy Day!

Today for the fun of it is going to be my HAPPY DAY!!!!

I am going to happy, excited, outgoing, funny and smiling all day long. Wanna see?
I am going to do something nice for someone and make someone smile today.
I just want to be happy and have a good day. So if you are reading this I hope this makes you smile and if you do something nice for someone or make someone smile, please leave a comment.

Thanks and have a happy WEDNESDAY.

Football Season coming to an end!!!

I am torn between being excited and sad to see football coming to an end.

Jordan has grown so much this season, it has been so much fun to see him come out of his shell and be real aggressive this year and have so much fun. He played wide receiver, and safety.

Last night he played his last season game at home. It was raining, snowing and blowing and was like 33 degrees. It was so cold! The first kick off of the game went right to Jordan, he picked it up and ran it back for the 1st touchdown of the game ( yah Jordan ). He also scored 2 more touchdown's in the 4th quarter. He had an awesome game. They had to score over 30 points, and keep the opponents scoreless to make it into the playoffs. The score was 36 to 0.

WAY TO GO FIRTH!!!!!

Kiel also played his last season game last night and did awesome. Kiel plays line, ( and doesn't love it!) But he had some nice blocks and tackles. It is hard to get him to be excited and to do something. He played a lot in this game. He doesn't have much excitement in his game to talk about yet, but we try to encourage him to hit hard and be aggressive. Needless to say they lost and will have 1 playoff game no matter what, if they win or lose it does not matter, they will be done. Kiel is very excited about this. I would have to say he is ready to be done. He says it means basketball is around the corner.

Football Season '09 underway

Football season is underway for us here in Firth. Jordan is playing 8th grade grid-kid and loving it. He wasn't going to play this year because he hasn't really enjoyed it that much and he didn't want to get hurt for basketball season. Well everyday for a whole week he had either parents or teammates stop by to beg him to play. Finally the coach stopped by and pleaded with him to just come and try it for one practice, so needless to say he tried it and loved it this year. He is playing wide receiver and free safety. In the second game of the season Jordan scored the winning touchdown with 3 seconds left on the clock. The crowed went wild, it was awesome. (I don't have pictures of that touchdown, dang-it.)

These are pictures of Firth playing Rigby, we lost this game but Jordan had an awesome game.

He scored 2 touchdowns, and had some awesome tackles. The second picture is of his 1st touchdown

of the game.

Kiel is playing 5th grade grid-kid. This year he is playing line, a step up from last year.

Here is Kiel ( #31 ) playing against Taylorview Idaho Falls. Unfortunately Firth lost big time, but Kiel enjoyed his time playing. He has a lot to learn playing line but this is only his 2nd year playing so it will come.
He got in on some of the plays and on others just stood their to watch the game.

He is on the end with the white socks on and long white sleeves.
On this "both" picture he is pushing someone. Go Kiel!
I am glad they both seem to be having fun, at least this keeps them busy and gives them something to do.

Anita Stansfield fan club....... sign up and join!

I am so excited to tell you all about my favorite LDS author, Anita Stansfield. She has a new fan club blog where you can stay up to date on all of her new happings.. Check it out, it is awesome. If you sign up to follow up be sure to mention my name in your comment box, this next week she is doing a contest so help me out. SIGN UP AND JOIN ASAP!

Go to unofficialanita.blogspot.com

have fun and good luck!

HALLOWEEN GIVE AWAYS!

Do you want to see the cutest blog i have ever seen? She always has such cute ideas, and fun things posted. This week she is having a halloween give away. Get on and check it out at thepolka-dotdaisy.blogspot.com.

Potter Family Reunion 2009Oh Oh

Oh we had so much fun being together as a family. This year was the Potter family bi-annual reunion. My dad being the oldest of 4 children was in charge of putting on the big bash. We held it at Lava Hot Springs and camped at Big Springs Camp area. It was a beautiful area, where we had it all to our selves to enjoy everyones company.

Everyone, i believe swam to their heart content or until they were so sun-burned that they had to stop out of misery. Everyone had fun seeing who were the bigger chickens (or in my eyes the smart ones) to jump off a 33ft. platform or the 2nd one (25ft) and the 1st one is (17ft). They had lots of fun trying that out. The next family gathering will be in 2 years wherever my Aunt Nan and Uncle Jack decide. Can't wait to see everyone again.

Bust A Gut..........

Oh being around Kiel is never a dull moment. This kid makes you laugh all the time.

My boys have chores to do everyday. They usually have 2 chores (clean their room, bathroom, and dirty clothes in hallway) that are the same everyday and then i give them a 3rd chore Kiel unload dishwasher, Jordan helps and then loads it. So anyways they earn $1.00 a day if all of these are completed by the time Blake or I get home from work. Not so hard if you ask me. It may be cheap by hey we don't have a lot of money and $5.00 a week is a lot, i think. Anyways so Friday night we went to the Chukars baseball game and Kiel is just like his dad, if he has money in his pocket he has to spend it fast before it burns a hole in his pants. So Kiel chose to spend his money on who knows what and Jordan is a saver ( like me ). So on Saturday we spent the day in town and Jordan wanted some hot cheetos so he decided to get some and Kiel asked for some gum. I said well where is your money? He bows his head and says I spent it all last night. I said well that sucks for you, ( normally i would have just bought him some but i am trying to teach him to spend wisely and not be a impulsive buyer ) so he then goes up to Jordan and asks Jordan if he would buy him some gum. Jordan says well what are you going to do for me? Kiel says well nothing, just be a nice brother and buy me some gum would you? So Jordan does it, but says you have to do something for me.

So i told Kiel the pack of gum if worth one day of chores for Jordan, but he does not have to do Jordan's room for him, but the other chores he has to do for him. Kiel kind of shakes his head at me, all in good standing being funny of corse. Well we get in the car to come home and Kiel says hey Jordan since we are brothers don't i get a brother discount or something? Blake and I laughed so hard at him, it was so funny. Were does he come up with these things?

Summer Clips

We are off and starting another year of baseball this year. Jordan is playing in the Babe-Ruth league in Idaho Falls this year, and Blake of course will be coaching again. He loves it! Jordan played 2nd base all season and did an awesome job at it. His team only lost 1 game all year long and took 3rd place in the end of the year tournament. Blake was way excited to do so well the 1st year in the league. The beginning of the season they put Firth in the JV league and they killed every team, so they were to put us in the varsity league the 2nd half of the season and messed up and didn't do that, so we stayed JV the whole season. Well when tournament time came they all decided that Firth was too good to stay JV for tournament and put us in the Varsity, so we ended up taking 3rd. It was good for the boys to have a winning season and go into tournament and take 3rd. Jordan had fun and learned a lot. He was the only one on the team that was a consistent hitter all season. WAY TO GO BUD!!!!

Here is Kiel pitching in his 1st All-Star tournament in St. Anthony. He got chosen to be on 2 different All-Star teams this year. Kiel played 3rd base and Pitcher throughout the season for his team this year and in the All-Stars. He is more at home on the mound though!

This year for the 4th we decided to get away and go to Island Park for the weekend with Blake's

family and grandparents. It was so much fun and relaxing. It was a hot weekend and the water felt good.

Blake enjoying the lakeside view, while Jordan and Kiel decide who is going to take a swim, i think Jordan won!~~

Kiel and Courtney ( Kiel's cousin) on a tube ride with water splashing in their face.

Saturday afternoon before the fireworks we took a drive to Big Springs to see the fish, we got eaten alive by mosquitos so we left really fast. Up above we are all waiting for the parade to start. They had a parade around the Island early Saturday morning, my boys ended up with a bag 1/2 full of candy. It was a really nice day full of festivities.

The Chapman reunion was held in the middle of July this year at Grandma & Grandpa's place. We started off the reunion with a hotdog roast at our home on Friday night. It was fun to all sit around the campfire roasting hotdogs and laughing. We had all kinds of fun! Lots of food, laughter, and games. Volleyball is always a big hit in the heat, and the kids played some water games with grandpa Blaine getting in the middle of it.

Kiel was chosen to be on a Firth All-Star team this year, they played in Blackfoot and did awesome. Kiel pitched 2 games holding the 1st team to only 2 points, and bringing Firth their 1st win of the tournament. The 2nd game he pitched he held the other team to only 4 points, and Firth another win. Kiel did awesome, and he enjoyed every minute of it. He had a couple of nice hits with a 3 RBI's, and some nice playes and catches for his team.

This summer we are lucky enough to be building a garage, FINALLY! We have only been waiting for 10 years for one. It has taken us longer then we had thought, but we are happy to get it done. Here is my brother Troy ( who flew all the way from Romaina to help us with it ), Blake and Kiel. Troy and Blake are teaching Kiel how to work! lol :) I will be posting more pictures soon of the progress on the garage. As we are all so excited for it. We also have Ben Mackowiak ( Blake's cousin), Blaine ( Blake's dad ) Ted ( My dad ) and Jeff ( Blake's brother in law ) all giving their time to help us build this monster of a building. Thanks to all of you for your help we really appreciate all your hard work and time.

Summer is going by so fast we don't have enough time to do all that we plan to do, but we have had lots of fun doing all that we have so far. The end of July we are planning our big potter reunion that we can not wait for, we are so excited. Have a happy and safe summer.

Everything Hits at once

Sometimes I wonder why everything has to hit at once, is it to teach us patience or if that is the way life goes.

Anyways this last 2 weeks has really taught us patience, if that is the word you could use.

4 days before Blake's week vacation started ( he had a week left to use before July 1st when his new vacation starts, if he does not use this week he loses it, not worth losing so he took it) his car just decided to stop in the middle of the road while he was driving it. Go figure right! Well he started working on it over the weekend and on his 1st day of vacation he worked on it and decided he could not fix it. The timing belt broke and blew the engine. How nice........ He towed it to Blackfoot to have the place be bought it from look at it. They said they could fix it for $1,000.00 WOW. Blake and I have always owned Honda's and have never had any of them break down to where he could not fix them, so I guess 1 out of 14 years is not bad, but unexpected. We have been in the process of refinancing our home, it has been over a month of waiting they keep telling us oh next week, or in a couple of days and then something else needs to be evaluated. Our home appraised for enough for us to build a garage ( we are so excited) and now we have to pay $1,000 to fix the car. I hope we have enough for the garage.

And then my dryer was making a noise so Blake tour that apart on Thursday and came to the conclusion that a fan is broken ( that would be why i have to dry my clothes at least 3 times) and needs to be replaced. $30 for a new one. So I am hanging clothes up all around my deck and home, it kind of looks like white trash. How embarrassing. OH well!

Sometimes I just want to scream, Blake keeps telling me it could be worse, I guess he is right about that but still frustrating at this moment. So instead of enjoying his vacation much he has been trying to fix everything that needed fixing or done around the house. Bless his heart, my house was even clean when i came home from work. What a gem he is.

I guess I will keep him around as well. :)

I think I will keep him around for a while :)

The other day just out of the blue Jordan came up to me and gave me a hug.  I would have fallen over if he were not hugging me and holding me up at the same time.  It just seems that since he turned 13 he does not like to show affection much, and that is ok, I have given him his space but have still told him daily that I love him and appreciate him( even if some days he is not easy to love)  So for him to come give me hug MADE MY DAY.

Well on Wednesday this week, I already told you that i had a house full of boys all week.  I had to work everyday on so on Wednesday when i came home my house was a little unkept.  I could tell everything they ate, it was all over the table and counter.  So I called for all 4 boys to come to the kitchen and fast, so in they came i started by asking them what color I was?  They looked at me like I was stupid and answered white, so i said so why should i have to clean up your mess? How old are all of you?  they answered, and so it went.  Well Jordan just finally looked at me and said Mom are not feeling loved, do you need a hug?  I could not help myself from laughing, he gave me a big hug and said do you feel better?  Yes actually I do, I responded it's just what I needed.  But just between us, I think he needed it more then me!  ha ha. yah right! 

This is why i have kids, boys actually, it makes being a parent worth every thing we go through. I do have a feeling that it will get worse until about ---------- well heck his dad is 33 and still difficult so who knows.  jk

Why I only have 2 boys!!!!

Well this week has been interesting enough.  Every year firth high school's boys basketball coach puts on a camp for 3rd-8th grade boys.  My sister lives in Star Valley Wy. and has 2 boys close to the same age as my boys.  So every year she sends her boys to come and stay with me to go to the camp, and it was this week.

It is not so bad during the day as all the boys are at camp all day long until 4 pm.  And then usually they have baseball every night to keep them even more busy and gets them really tired, or so I thought :)  This week went relatively well until the rain set in and cancelled all the baseball games, then i had to think of what to make for dinner or how to entertain them :(

Well Wednesday night my brother called and asked if his son could stay over as well, I said sure why not.  I had 5 boys stuck in my small home on a rainy night.  What to do?  So Blake decided we have a movie night, they picked Open Season, if you have not seen that you need to watch it.  It is so funny, those boys (even Blake) laughed and laughed.

Anyways the moral of my story is, I have not picked up more dirty underwear or socks in my entire life! and my house stunk so bad and I cooked more food to feed any army or so I thought again! But i hope they all had fun, and enjoyed their stay at the Chapman Hotel. My house is now quite and semi clean and smells like lemon.  AHHHHH!

I love that my nephews love coming and staying at my home.  It is fun and good memories.

love you all!

lots of fun on Memorial Weekend

What a weekend! Earlier in the week my Dad turned 70, all of us kids just called him and acted like no big deal.  Well on Saturday we threw him a surprise party.  His younger brother and sister came from Utah to be in on the surprise.  And surprise it was,  my dad has never had a surprise party before and he was so excited and grateful. We all had a good time and yummy food.

Here is Jordan and Kiel with their grandpa.

On Monday we kicked off the Summer with our annual Chapman hot dog roast.  It was nice weather and lots of yummy food.

Here is a picture of my mothers headstone.  Every year my dad buys a new precious moments and glues it on her headstone in remembrance of her.  She collected precious moments so he decided to continue it for her.  No one has ever bothered them to took any off.  It is so neat and something us kids look forward to every year to see what one he picks  every year.  this year was for the boys.  It is neat, and the grandkids love it.

He is 70, boy he does not look it or act it. This year on his birthday he was finishing a big job of concrete.  Do you know anyone who is 70 and still does concrete work?  AMAZING!

This is everyone (almost) who showed up for the grand event. On Sunday morning Dad and Chris made dutch oven breakfast for everyone and then we went to the grave.  So we were busy all weekend.  It was fun.  We love everyone and thanks for making it a great weekend.

KARISSA'S GRADUATION DAY

SHE DID IT! Congratulations  Karissa............ She is absolutely beautiful.  We were lucky enough to be able to attend my nieces graduation.  And it turned it nicely and it was fast 1hr and 5 min.  WOW! 
Katie and Liberty having fun at the graduation.  Liberty and Karissa share the same birthday.  May 28th Liberty will the BIG #1 and aunt Karissa will be the BIG 18. and gets to go to
Romania to spend time with her dad.  What a graduation gift.

have fun Rissa, we love you!

Kiel's baseball game

Oh how I love baseball season, except for the weather that is.

Here is Kiel's 1st game of the season. Blake was lucky enough to have to umpire this game so he could watch Kiel play.  Kiel got to pitch to close the game, and close he did.  He got 3 up 3 down.  Blake was a little nervous because he did not want to look like he was favoring Kiel but, no problem with that this kid of ours can throw and has good aim.  He was so excited, he struck out one of his good friends that is pretty competitive with Kiel. They won the game.  GOOD JOB BUD!

Busy May

Wow What a busy  Month May has been so far, it will only get crazier this next week for us.

Mother's day was just another day, good thing I have an amazing grandmother that makes it special for all of us moms.  She always goes all out.  We had a big dinner, yummy dessert, good company and Blake doing the cleaning and dishes ( I had to post a picture so you all would believe me, and I could remember it always ). My nieces Katie ( and her daughter Liberty ) and Karissa came and joined us, it was nice to visit with them.  Liberty is just so cute, and fun it was a nice visit.

Blake bought a new toy, as you can see it kept him and the boys occupied for many hours the other day.  Then it was time to re-paint the basketball court.  This year Blake wanted to add the jumpman symbol to it, so he spent some time to cut it out and paint it on the court.  It was a nice finish!  Mylie ( our cat ) decided it wanted to add to the finishing touches and so we have some paw prints on our court.  I am sure you know how that made Blake feel!