Well, this is just a few quick photos from our boy's first day of school. Jacob is now a Freshman in High School (although 9th here is still in the Jr. High), Jeremy is in Junior High, and Cody, too, is moving right up in 3rd Grade. We're all going back, and now we have to keep track! Jacob is at Mapleton Jr. High, Jeremy is at Spanish Fork Jr. High, Cody is at Cherry Creek Elementary, and I'm at Mapleton Elementary. We've got quite the calendar! Thank goodness this is all in the same school district!

I'm still having a hard time wrapping my mind around how fast time really has gone by. I look and see all of my nieces and nephews who are heading off to pre-school and kindergarten for the first time. They are so excited and happy, and it seems like only yesterday that I was looking at them in the hospital. I have the same feeling, much more so lately, for my own children. I realized that Jacob has lived with us now, longer than he has left before he leaves on a mission. I feel like I need to make everything count, make sure my children are faithful, dedicated to the gospel, and ready for life. I want them to be happy and enjoy life. I get to be the "bad guy" most of the time right now, while I'm trying to teach them what to do, in order to be on their own someday.

I know we are all working hard with our families, and I want my little family to be strong. That's why I'm glad I have such great friends and family all around, because they, too, add to that growth process. Anway...Here are those good looking boys!!

Doesn't Jeremy look like he's happy to be going back to school!?

Well, I knew if I changed my background again to something outside of the blogspot options, I would lose all of my "widgets" or slide shows and pictures, etc. But, I decided to just go ahead and find something prettier again, and just only put one slide show back in at the bottom of my posts. I'll just plan to do some more fun ones in the future.

So....to start off, Jeremy had been begging us for several weeks to get him a lizard in order for him to work on earning his Pets Merit Badge. He didn't want to do it with one of our current pets, so we kept telling him no. Then, his YM leader, who knows that Jeremy and I love birds, came to him with something interesting. In his garage the day of Young Mens, he found, of all things, a Cockatiel bird. His house is out in a large field, with no immediate neighbors. So, it was very unusual. But, he showed it to Jeremy, and asked him if he wanted the bird, because it had obviously been cared for by someone, as it was very, very tame, coming right onto your hand without pecking and biting. We talked with some vets over the next few days, and watched him to make sure he wasn't sick, and would get over the "trauma" of all of these events and new people. He needs to have his wings clipped down some, and has the longest claw nails, but otherwise, is very pretty. We also put out the "feelers" for people in the area who might have been looking for him. Long story short--we've had Charlie (from what we've read, we're pretty sure its a boy) for almost two weeks, and he is finally starting to "come out of himself" and has been singing (the description they give for Cockatiel sounds is "screaming", and it really does sound pretty close to that) and "talking". He must have had someone working with him as he can sing a "cat call", like you would hear a man whistle at a pretty woman walking down the street. It's really quite funny. And, he is definitely a singer when the sun comes up in the morning, like our bird Chester. He is also several decibels louder than Chester! I hear Jacob in the morning, from the other room across the way, "Charlie, shut up!" But, I really love it! I love those sounds. So, Jeremy has a new friend, a working project for his merit badge, and is happy beyond measure as we got the bird a new cage and are letting him keep the bird in his room.

Then, this last weekend was a wedding and a baby blessing on Doug's side of the family. Although the rest of the extended family on my side went up to my nephew's baptism in Idaho, we stayed behind this time, as we don't get to do as many things with his family, as we do mine. Plus, it was going to be the first time in over 10 years that all of his brothers and sisters would be together at the same time. He had a brother coming up from Arizona, one from Idaho, and one from Nevada. They got some funny pictures of all of them together, right after the wedding ceremony. Our nephew wasn't being sealed in the temple, and his wedding was at the Somewhere Inn Time Bed and Breakfast in Lindon. And, it was outside. That was NOT fun! We were all dying in the heat, but still had an enjoyable time being with everyone. The bishop that married them gave them some really good advice, and her dress was very pretty. And, they actually had their dog bring up the rings on a pillow! That was funny to me as I'd only ever seen that done on TV! The one picture we got of just our little family together shows how the heat was getting to the boys. Since I thought it was inside, they were wearing long sleeve dress shirts. Needless to say, they kept reminding me how terrible a mother I was because I made them wear those clothes! And, after you see Doug's family picture, I think you'll understand that Doug is probably doomed to be completely bald at some point in his life. He's got a cute little round patch in the back at present, but, the genetics aren't in his favor!

The following day, we attended our other nephew's blessing of his first baby, a daughter (it's late, and I'm so tired, I can't remember some names, so I'm just leaving them all out! I know that sounds terrible!). So, it was a long weekend with company at our house, and traveling around everywhere. I was actually sick for a day after everything was over and everyone was gone, because I ate too much over the weekend, thinking what I had eaten was o.k. But...alas, it's still going to be very slow getting back to some more regular food.

The other funny thing is that Doug was called out on a Mtn. Rescue right after the wedding, so he didn't actually get to attend the reception. We were glad that he was at least able to get those pictures with his brothers and sisters before he was called away.

This rescue was quite interesting for him, as they had just practiced what they had to do on their last training day.

A guy who was climbing with a buddy up Rock Canyon, ended up falling about 30 ft. He actually just missed hitting a particular spot that would have sent him down another 20 or so feet. He survived the 30 ft. with internal injuries, but most likely wouldn't have survived a 50 ft. fall! It was his buddy's fault, and the man felt really guilty. But, as you can see in the picture I'm going to put on, he tried so hard to stop him falling by holding the rope that it cut his hands.

It was too dangerous for the helicopters to drop off Doug's team, so they had to hike up and then belay him down in the carrier basket.

I'm always so amazed when Doug goes on these call outs. I'm SOO proud of him. He is such a good man in so many ways--but gives so much outside of himself to serve others. I truly love this quality to him.