Happy Birthday to me!!

It was a good day. Kiel got right up and wished me a happy birthday with a hug.  He is such a sweet little boy. I told him I was going tanning and would be right back, he was so excited because he wanted to make me breakfast.  Gosh now i was excited, so I hurried  home, when I got back he made me a fried egg, toast and a glass of milk, he also made Jordan breakfast as well and he cleaned up the mess. Then later on I surprised them with the news that they get to make my birthday cake for me.  Needless to say Kiel was thrilled, while Jordan not so much.  But he did a good job and it turned out nicely, and yummy.  Strawberry shortcake, yummy!  Blake called all his family and my dad, Chris, Thayne and Kade showed up as well.  It was a goon day.  I got lots of money to spend in Vegas and a full body massage coming from my hubby ( the best gift ever, if I ever receive it ha ha).  

The boys making my cake and eating the batter as they go.

Jordan mixing up my birthday cake against his wishes! But he was sweet to do it for me.

Oh I just love birthdays, aren't these just beautiful? 

These flowers were given to me by my visiting teachers from my church.  Oh my goodness they are so beautiful and smell up my whole house.  I love tulips!  I just hope I do not kill them, if you know me at all you will know I do not have a green thumb.

I leave for Salt lake in the morning, and then leave for vegas on Friday morning, the nerves are setting in.  I hate leaving my family behind and it is soo far to go.  I know everything will be alright but as a mother I get nervous.  But I am a little excited it should be fun.

VEGAS HERE I COME!!!

Only 9 days until I am in Vegas for my 1st time.  And only 6 days until my birthday.  Holy Cow! I think I will be 31, I am an old girl!

 I am going to Vegas for my niece's wedding on April 3rd. I am riding with my Dad and Mom.  Blake is unable to go do to his vacation days.  So he told me to just go ahead.  My brother Thayne is riding with us and Tanya and Talia (both my sisters) are meeting us in Vegas.  It will be a fast trip but fun.  I am really excited, but disappointed Blake won't be with me.  

SPRING INTO ACTION! DO SOMETHING FUN FOR YOURSELF TODAY AND POST IT ON YOUR BLOG.

Normal life, What is that?

Well basketball is finally done. Blake says we can finally go back to our normal lives, and I asked him if he remembers what that actually is, his comment was "not really but I do know it is boring".  Well there you have it, that is our lives.

 Jordan and Kiel both had basketball tournaments this last week end.  Jordan had a 7th grade tourny. in Shelley that Blake helped with. They didn't do too well but had lots of fun and a great experience for next year.

Kiel had a tournament in Firth for 5th graders and since he is only in the 4th grade they wanted him to play up, so we let him.  His team went undeafeted and he had so much fun, he is just more excited that they beat Shelley (our biggest rival ). So with these two boys we spent all night Thursday, Friday and all day Saturday watching basketball.  We are officially sick of it.  You all probably never thought that was possible.

Well unlucky for Blake he has been asked to coach the 7th grade Babe Ruth baseball ( like he has every year), so he has this week only off until baseball starts next week. I do not think we ever get a break from sports.  The head high school football coach came and asked him to coach the 8th grade football for this coming fall.  That is one sport Blake has never had anything to do with, and told him so hoping he will get out of that one.  GOOD LUCK!

Any way we are off to baseball season in one week, Kiel will start in about 1 month.

Happy Spring to all of you!!!!!

Vacation, Vacation, Vacation

Okay, so my home goes from being loud, messy, and full to being quite, still, empty, clean, and lonely this week.  Blake and the boys headed out yesterday morning to Boise for Firth State basketball until Saturday night.  I stayed home to work and relax. (how stupid of me) I am walking around my home thinking what should I do, maybe i should clean out drawers or closets, or maybe cupboards, or maybe sit down with a good book and relax.  Well reading won of course, why should I clean when they are off playing and eating out. Am I right or am I right?  I feel like I am right.  Maybe the house will get clean by Saturday night, maybe!

Have a happy go lucky day, and do something crazy today:)

Love, Laughter, and a full house

What is better then a full house of family? Nothing! So, with a full house this weekend, we sure had a lot of love and laughter in-side these 4 walls. 

My brother Troy and his wife Lacey flew home from Romania  (he is working for Dome tech.and is stationed In Romania for about 1yr.) for 2 weeks to visit with family and see Troy's kids, so my little sister Talia and her family came to town to see him and they all stayed at my home this weekend.  It was sure fun to visit with all of them.  We watched movies, played games, ate lots of food, told stories and  barbecued steaks (they were yummy & juicy). My brother Travis celebrated his 40th birthday on Saturday, we tried calling him and he was gone to work, we were going to let him know we were not able to celebrate with him (cause he lives in Arizona) but we were defiantly celebrating his birthday eating steaks, and thinking of him. 

Any ways we had a fun weekend, and we were so happy to be able to see Troy, Lacey, Talia and Matt. On Sunday Dad and Chris had everyone over for dinner and to give Troy and Lacey their Christmas present's.  Again yummy food!  Saturday our neighbors officially moved to Idaho Falls.  We feel so bad we were unable to help, do to all of our company but we do love them dearly and will miss them.  So all of you that are just dying to move to Firth, the house across the street is for sale, I know all of you would love to be neighbors with the Chapman's! haha!

I love a house full of giggles and love!

Kiel turns the big #10

Kiel celebrated his 10th birthday on the same day Michael Jordan celebrated his 46th. Yup, thats right, Kiel and Michael have the same birthday, and there is not a year that goes by that Kiel likes to remind his older brother of this fact. This was actually the 1st year Kiel has had to go to school on his birthday since kindergarten.  Since presidents day is the day before he has always missed school.  He is in the 4th grade this year, and I felt so bad for him, he called me when he got home from school and I asked him how his day went and he said" just like any other day", and I said "Oh how is that?" "nothing great happened today!"  I asked if anyone said happy birthday or anything, and he said "no, no one knew it was my birthday, they could care less"  I felt so bad for him I almost started crying for him.  But come to find out for some reason they sang to him on Friday, why?  I have no idea. Oh well he survived it.

Here are some pictures of Kiel opening his presents with the Chapmans. Here he got a Chris Paul jersey, high school musical 3 ( he does look a little overely excited about this one), he got pistachios from great grandpa-ma Chapman,(he tells us they are his favorite), and he got lots of money as well as candy.
 

Here he got a tiger from Grandma-pa Chapman with a gift card hooked onto it.

He got NFL fantasy football monopoly game from Grandpa-ma Potter.  they could not make his party that night so they dropped off his present.  Here we are playing it as a family, we had so much fun that we played it for 3 hrs on sunday night.  We are hoping we played it right! It was fun!  So he tells us he had a good birthday.  He ended up with $65, we asked him what he is going to do with it (since he has his fathers mentality, if he has it, he spends it without thinking about it) he says he is saving it for Boise.  Blake and the boys are going to Boise next weekend for Firth Boys State basketball with my dad (grandpa Potter) again this year.  They had so much fun last year, that they are going back again.  So Kiel wants to save his money for that. Some times they do surprise you!  I just can't wait to see what he brings home from Boise, that he bought with his own money.  Remember his Dad is going with him!  This should be interesting to see.

What I want to be when I grow up!

Okay, are you checking your childrens homework?  Well after seeing this, you might want to start checking it more closely. My sister-in-law posted this on her blog and I thought it was too funny not to post on mine. Kids' minds are amazing!  HOw funny!

when asked to draw a picture of what they wanted to be when they grew up, second-grader "Sarah" turned in the lovely drawing shown below. Needless to say, the teacher was a bit surprised -- Mrs. Smith had always seemed like such a conservative woman. So she sent a note home to the girl's mother asking for clarification as to the picture's meaning.


(Here's the reply the teacher received the following day)

Dear Mrs. Jones,

I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer. I work at Home Depot and I told my daughter how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit. I told her we sold out every single shovel we had, and then I found one more in the back room, and that several people were fighting over who would get it. Her picture doesn't show me dancing around a pole. It's supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot. From now on I will remember to check her homework more thoroughly before she turns it in.

Sincerely,
Mrs. Smith

What have the Chapman's been up to?

Well we have been pretty busy doing a whole lot of nuttin. Both of the boys are still in basketball and having lots of fun. They both had reports going at the same time.  Jordan had to write one on John Quincy Adams, and thank goodness we are done with that one, and he had to make a stupid puppet of him. How stupid is that?  Kiel has one for Idaho History due next week.  So I have been really busy helping both of them get their reports typed and written so they make sense and readable ( that is a bigger job then you think, try reading Kiel's writing, let alone Jordan's ). Kiel has had a lot of fun the past week at school.  He had all in one day a Valentine's party, 100 days of school party where they watched The Fox and the Hound, and cupcakes for his birthday, all in 1 day.  Wow, what a day!  I will post pictures from Kiel's birthday tomorrow when I down load pictures.  So stay posted.

Jordan had his first school dance last friday, WoW, a little much for mom to handle.  Blake and I talked to him the night before about dancing with girls and the rules and how to never turn a girl down and then dance with the next girl. He was so embarrassed just talking about it.  He said don't worry mom I will just stand on the sides against the wall and dance with no one!  Well some of the teachers paired him up with some girls to dance with, one being the teachers daughter.  Jordan said he about died from embarrassment, Blake and I would have loved to seen that.  He did say he had fun though, so that is good, at least if didn't scare him away!

Well our dear friends, adopted parents and grandparents across the street are leaving us next weekend to move to Idaho Falls.  blake and I are just devastated over this turn of events.  We are so worried about who is going to be our new neighbors it just kills us.  We always thought they would be across the street for ever.  They keep an eye on us and our kids and we just love them to death.  It will be a very long hard week for us in this house hold.  But we love them and wish them well on their journey in Idaho falls.

Other then that boring stuff that is about all we have going on here.  Oh yah, we have been glued to the t.v on Tuesday and Wed. nights. AMERICAN IDOL is back on, we are huge fans of that show and love to watch it every week.  We can not wait for it.

25 Random things about ME!

Here is 25 random things about me!

1. I was married at age 17 ( I do not really recommend this)
2. Blake and I have been together for 14 1/2 years
3. I love love love the color purple
4. dolphins are my favorite
5. I have always wanted to own a horse ( a clydesdale)
6. I have never broken a bone in my body
7. I love, I mean live to read romance novels
8. I fall asleep during movies ( any movie)
9. my dream has always been to have a little girl named after my mother
10. all I have ever owned is Honda vehicles
11. I have never been on a plane
12. Blake and I have never been anywhere for 1 night by oursleves ( how have we made it 13 yrs)
13. I have 2 of the best boys ever
14. I love to cook
15. I hate hate hate the snow
16. I love watching sports on t.v and in person
17. I would love to see a dolphin in person some day
18. my dream is to bring my boys to Chicago in 2 yrs from now ( including Blake)  ha ha
19. it makes me happy when my family is having fun
20. I love to laugh
21. I love the smell of a new born baby
22. I love spring
23. I love fall
24. I love to make other people happy
25. I am looking forward to our next big Potter family reunion this year in Bear Lake

Gosh that was harder then I thought.  thinking of random things about yourself off the top of your head it tough.

Thanks for letting me share with you just how crazy  and odd I am.

What's for dinner?

I am so thankful to a dear friend of mine who decided to start a cooking blog.  Her blog and campbell's kitchen home cooking website and has saved me several times when i come home late or just can not decide what to make for dinner, when everything sounds the same, or you are tired of everything you know how to make.  

Her blog gives me good ideas and tips to use as well.  So thanks for all the time it takes to post your ideas, it helps me out. For the rest of you, if you need ideas as well check it out.

tested-tried-true.blogspot.com

 

January Recap

This is a recap of January. (It is all backwards on how I wanted it, but I do not want to fix it.  So enjoy a little crazyness). It is only the 24th of January and Blake and I feel like it has been 3 months since New Years Eve.  We have had a busy month with birthdays, basketball, and hoop shoots.

We had District hoop shoot in Blackfoot ( 12 miles south of Firth) for Jordan. He made 19 out of 25 and won 1st place. 2nd and 3rd place tied with 18, they had a shoot out.  We are so proud of Jordan and very surprised he won with 19, last time he got 21 out of 25.  So now he goes to State in Blackfoot again, on Feb. 7th. Blake and I are very proud of both of our boys.

Then Kiel's basketball started for the year.  Kiel is #13 with the ball.  He is having so much fun and loving every minute of it.  He loves learning from his older brother, but that does not mean he takes the advice very well.
Then we had Jordan's season start for basketball. This is his second game at South Fremont. They lost the first game at Shelley and they beat South Fremont by 1 point. Then they played Teton and beat them by 8 points, and lost to Sugar in over-time. They are 2-4.  His coach said they are on a winning streak! Jordan is having a lot of fun. I am not sure if you can see him good enough, he is at the top of the 3 point line in the blue with out the ball.
We started January out with a bang, we had New Year's then Jordan's hoop shoot then we had Blake's 33rd birthday. We celebrated by going out to eat at his favorite place, RED LOBSTER of course! He loves to get the King Crab, then the next day we had cake and ice cream with his family and then on Monday we had my dad and Chris over for dinner and peach cobbler (peaches that i canned this fall).  So we basically parted all weekend for his birthday, it was a lot of fun. Then his dad's birthday is 3 days after his, so we had cake and ice cream again.  His grandpa's is on the 1st, so we pretty much party all month long. 

Hoop Shoot 21 out of 25

Jordan made the finals for hoop shoot in Firth he made 18 out of 25, so he was sent to Blackfoot this last Saturday.  Blake was unable to go with us he had to coach Kiel's team, so Jordan and his friend Conner and myself went to Blackfoot.  Jordan was so nervous he has never been here before.  He made it last year but they told Firth and Shelley the wrong date so we missed it and they would not redo it for us.  So this is the 1st time he made it.  Conner went down and warmed up with him.  They got started and as I was watching I got more nervous for him.  The 1st round he made 7 out of 10.  The kid before him was from Shelley and he made 8 out of 10.  Jordan shows no emotion what so ever and they do not tell the kids how many each kid makes so they have no idea where they are at.  They get to the 2nd round and the kid in front of Jordan made 11 out of 15.  Jordan is next and he made 7 in a row then he missed one then he made 5 and was tied with the Shelley kid, Conner and I were about to lose control.  Because you have to be so quite you can not say anything at all.  So here we are keeping score and freaking out he is tied.  The other boys were not competition at all.  So Jordan really needed to make the next 2 shots to win.  He made the next one and they say last shot, he sinks it no problem the relief on his face was so funny I could not help to laugh.  The parents from Shelley kind of gave me a dirty look because they knew he won.  Well Jordan gets done they tell them to go sit in the stands until the girl's finish.  Jordan comes and sits down and says very quietly how did I do?  I said you made 21 out of 25, he says what about the Fredrickson  kid from Shelley I said 19 out of 25 he says YES! But mom I am nervous what if they messed up on my score? ( This happened 2 years ago in Firth with Jordan and his best friend Mason, Jordan won by 1 point and they gave it to Mason so Jordan lost, we were so mad but could do nothing about it) I said well buddy that is not something we can fix, lets just see what happens.  Well when it was time to announce the boys they said " 1st place boys goes to Tyler Fredrickson with 19 out of, Oh wait a minute excuse me it goes to Jordan Chapman with 21 out of 25"  I thought we were going to die for a minute both Jordan and I held our breath the parents from Shelley had the shock look on their face and then they said Jordan.  He had a big smile on his face he was so happy.  He did it!  He know goes back to blackfoot on January 24th for District.  We will keep you all updated on his progress.  He also has his first game against Shelley tomorrow. 

GO JORDAN!!!!

Jordan being presented with 1st place with 21 out of 25.

Jordan is warming up for the hoop shoot. His friend Conner is helping him get ready.

The waiting is over............

Jordan is a "Panther".  He had tryouts for 7th grade basketball the week before Christmas, and surprise he made the team!  Blake and I were so proud of him and very excited.  Now the fun begins, making sure he had good enough grades the Friday before games, practices and driving to all the away games!  HOW EXCITING!  Actually if any of you know us very well you will know that we really are excited and can not wait.  This is what Blake and I live for is to watch our boys have fun and play sports.

Well the 1st week of practice Jordan's best friend and also a guard went sledding and guess what?  Yup, broke his arm.  We were shocked, for one if you are on the school team you do not go skiing or sledding in the winter for that reason.  maybe I know that because I grew up as a coach's daughter and my whole family played sports, you just do not do things like that.  Well the coach wasn't too happy, for this boy was backup to Jordan.  So when Jordan goes out for a rest he has no one to put in as shooting guard.  Well tonight Jordan had a practice game and what does he do, he thinks he should go in and help rebound and rolls his ankle.  I thought Blake and his coach were going to lose control.  Luckily it is not bad and with some ice should be fine for practice tomorrow.  The whole way home Blake told Jordan " you do not rebound, you are a guard you stay out from under the basket see what happens when you go inside to rebound?  let the bigger guys get the ball"  poor Jordan!  Any ways he is doing better.

At school this week they had the hoop shoot contest and Jordan won for the 12 and 13 yrs old.  He made 18 out of 25.  Kiel won for his class but they have not finished the whole 4th grade yet so we will find out tomorrow if he wins.  Jordan goes to Blackfoot for the finals this Saturday.  Keep your fingers crossed for him.  He made it last year as well but Blackfoot told us the wrong date so we missed the finals, we were so mad.  So we wish him luck this year.  :)

OMG its 2009!

OMG, I can not believe 2009 is here!  This last year went by so fast, it is scary. Well I do have to say this New Year's eve sucked.  It was so boring.  We had my sister Lezlie and her family with us, and that was okay and would have been fun but both of our husbands are BORING!  All they did was sit in front of the T.V we tried to play games but that is only fun for about 5 min with kids.We tried leg wrestling, arm wrestling and was both fun for a minute. Jordan and Kohl are both over the age of 12 so they are old enough to play but Kiel and Kyler are not.  We tried playing Clue thinking okay they are over 8 yrs. so they should catch on, oh no don't try it.  It was a night mare, Lez and I tried to have fun and not yell, but it was pointless, and then to make matters worse Kyler kept telling us 4 min, 3 min and then 1 min and Lezlie was reading the directions and was not paying attention to him and we missed the New Year coming in. Me trying to keep my mothers tradition of banging pans, yelling, honking horns and trying to make as much noise as possible alive, and then we missed it this year! I think my neighbors were wondering if we were in bed or gone or maybe they were so delighted in the peace and quite that they celebrated their own way and will thank me later.  Well the kids were sure mad at us, they were so mad and almost crying it made Lezlie and I feel so bad, we still tried to celebrate ( we were only 30 sec. late) but they would not go for it.  So we failed big time this year.  I think I may be the only one in our family that still carries the tradition on.  I love it and look forward to it.  Blake on the other hand has always thought us Potter's were too loud.  He lets us do our thing and he stands back and watches while shaking his head.  Actually I believe he is just jealous he didn't think of it first! ha ha.  So needless to say we had a QUITE New Year's Eve.  New Year's day we went over to Blake's grandparent for a lunch. It is his grandpa's birthday today so we helped celebrate that with him. Lezlie's family left to go to the movies and Katie and Brandon and Karissa came down to play games with us.  That was fun, we played "ticket to ride" and Blake and Brandon played with us.  Wow! that was fun!  When they decide to live a little it can be fun. Then Blake and Jordan mostly played with Katie's baby Liberty, she is so cute and fun.  She is 7 months old and such a cutie.  We were glad they came down.

Christmas day

Wow what a beautiful day. It snowed all day on Christmas, it was just beautiful. We had a good day.  The boys each got $100 from Blake and I and then 2 small presents and then the Santa gift, santa gave them a plaque.  Jordan got Labron James, and Kiel got Chris Paul.  They were so happy. Kiel says he is going to save his 100 bill, (yah we will see about that), Jordan says he will too ( now I believe that). They are so funny!  Blake and I got stadium chairs and a new Honda Pilot for christmas.  We are happy. We went over to Grandma and Grandpa Chapmans for a huge Christmas dinner, gifts and games.  We had such a good time over there we stayed until 9 p.m.  I can not believe Christmas is over, it is kind of depressing when you look out side and see all the snow and then under the tree all the gifts are gone and your house is a mess, it makes me want to crawl back into bed and stay until January 1st.  Why, i have no idea!

Family party

This year the family party was at Thayne's home again. Thayne and Tricia planned everything and it was so much fun. We missed Troy and Lacey, and Travis, Jennifer and their family this year.  Todd and his family finally made it after a 6 hr. drive from Salt Lake City.  They were 1 hr. behind a 37 car pile up and stuck in traffic.  Todd told us he went 3 miles in 1 hr.  They missed all the games but we were so glad they made it and safely. Grandma and Grandpa gave all of the boys a blanket made by grandma some got their favorite sports team or animals, the girls grandpa drew them all a precious moments picture and the little ones also got an apron made by grandma.  The adults got a Greg Olsen picture of the savior.  It was a nice Christmas for everyone.  We played the bubble gum game to see what team could unwrap the gum and blow the first bubble. We played a matching game that Blake won, we played name that tune, witch the men beat the women ( they were all christmas songs) and the white elephant game.  All of them were very fun. Thanks Tricia for all you hard work and yummy food.  This year as a family we raised money at our family reunion and took all the money to help a family in need in the area.  We provided a Christmas dinner along with gifts for all the kids and the parents.  Dad and Chris put in a little extra as well.  I hope everyone had a good time and a Merry Christmas.

Potter family christmas party

12 Days of Christmas

This year Blake and I decided to do something a little different. We did the 12 days of christmas to my dad and  Mom (step) and to Blake's grandparents.  It was so fun putting the gifts together and seeing the look on their faces when we dropped off the gifts. This way they can enjoy Christmas a little bit each day.  Here are some pictures of Blake delivering to his grandma and of my Dad and Chris putting on their festive holiday socks.  It is so fun!  We hope to make it a tradition every year.

Thanksgiving was a fun, loud, busy weekend with lots of food.  Here I am making my 1st homemade apple pie, gosh it was sooo yummy.  I canned the apple pie filling this fall.  It was worth it.  We had dinner this year with my family at my Dad's home.  It was yummy food!  After dinner we played games.  We played what we call spoons, and if you do not end up with a spoon you get a letter.  We were spelling monkey, the person who gets monkey 1st has to get on the table and act like that animal.  Well grandma LOST so she had to act like a monkey it was sooo funny.  She is in deed a good loser ( for her 1st time playing that is).  We had a good time.  My sister Lezlie and her family stayed at our home for the weekend we had a good time shopping, playing games, making candy, and all the boys went to the ISU vs BYU mens basketball game in Pocatello on Saturday night.  They had a good time, they loved it.  SO it was a great Holiday weekend for us with not much sleep.

Jazz vs. Suns

Last week Jordan was the lucky winner in our home to attend the Jazz vs. Suns game with his Grandpa Potter  on row 23. Grandpa called and invited Blake, but Blake says maybe I will send Jordan, he has never been before and would love it.  So Blake and Jordan went back and forth for the next day saying " no you go, you would love it, no you go you have never been before" it was so funny. Finally Jordan says "fine you lost,  I am going to go with grandpa" and he did. Uncle Thayne, Aunt Tricia and his cousin Kade also were in attendance that night but were on row 2 of the floor, it was Kade's 12th birthday present from his parents.  They were feed dinner and snacks, Kade was nice and shared with Jordan, lucky him.  Jordan had the time of his life. Jordan decided not to wear his Korver jersey since he was going to be cheering for preferably the suns, but grandpa told him he has to cheer for both if he was going to sit by him ( ha ha).  To Jordan's dismay the Jazz won that night. Jordan likes both teams a lot thought so he was not too disappointed.  Grandpa and Jordan went and did some sight seeing before the game, they went to Temple square, the museum, and some other things.  This is all the pictures I have until grandpa sends me some.