Houston We Have a Problem & Merry Christmas!

So - our computer was infected with the Internet Explorer virus that was on the national news last week. We are out of commission! So sad to not be able to read blogs and catch up with everyone - especially at this time of year. We hope you have a wonderful Christmas with your families.

I love Christmas and the whole meaning. Our Savior's Birth. My mom and I were out shopping a few nights ago and we passed a house that said HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS. It was a big banner that stretched across the front of their house. It made us chuckle - that really is it. What a blessing that he came to earth and was born for us. He lived for us, to show us the way, he died for us.

HE LOVES US! and knows each one of us personally. Why else would he do what he did?

I am so blessed with great friends, you mean a lot to me. Have a fabulous holiday. I hope that our computer will be back up and working properly soon. Until then - ;)

A few of our favorite Christmas songs are here on our blog. Ali's all time favorite is Mary Did You Know?

Fire Safety and Fun Field Trip

Zach had a fun field trip with school to the fire station.
I loved watching all the kids and their fascination at the fire station. The fireman opened up every compartment in the fire truck for them to check it out. They were also able to go through one side and come out the other.

Zach had to ask where their dog was, and the fireman was kind enough to tell the story about dalmations and how they used to follow along with the horses to find the fire back in the day. No dogs now.

Lots of fun!

I love Parker. He would stop and pose for a picture every time I asked him to. He is a hoot!

Lunch With Ali

We were able to eat lunch with Ali on Halloween.

Something she is always beggin us to do.

Hollie and Maddison Came with Too.

Very Thankful!

I am so thankful and grateful for my country! Even more grateful to those who sacrifice so much for all of us and leave their families and their lives to serve in the military. Whether they be serving on the other side of the world, or just down the street - I feel very blessed and lucky.

To those who have laid down their life in service, I am forever grateful and pray that their families will be able to continue on and that they will always be remembered. They are TRUE HEROES! I thank them with all my heart, and remember them this Veterans Day!

I love American Flag. What an Icon and symbol of freedom and choice. I feel a reverence for the flag every time I see it.

Every time Zach gets antsy in the car we look for American Flags flying. It has been a wonderful fun thing to do with him. When he was a little younger he would scream out with such excitement, mom a flag, a flag.

HAPPY FOR MORE LIVING SPACE

I have had a lot of friends that have wanted to see my project in the basement. I am proud of my 2 day accomplishment. I am still grateful to my sister and brother (in-law) for the time and effort they spent at my house that weekend. It is so nice to have more living/usable space.

The Junk that was hauled out and The happy shelf maker

THE TOY SHELF

Hope everyone is doing well.

Passing of a Friend

Trent DuVal went back to his Heavenly Home Today. Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers during this time. Hold your kids a little tighter and tell those you love that you love them.

Thanks again to everyone who supported and helped at the fundraiser. It was a huge sucess!
Here is the newspaper article
http://www.sltrib.com/ci_10857139

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

One of our favorite holidays! Ali couldn't go to sleep last night, too excited, just like the Disneyland comercial. She woke up at 6:00 am this morning too. Wish it were that easy every day.

Zach just said, it's not Halloween, it's not dark. Made me laugh. They are excited for some Halloween fun today.

Have a safe and fun Halloween!

Scrappin Chicks

Ali and I were able to have a girls out weekend. We had so much fun. We went to the Cotton Tree Inn in Sandy and stayed up until 2:00 am scrap booking. Then woke up at 7:00 am to do it all over again. Our great friends, Alonna and Joanie were with us. We had a fabulous time chatting and sharing pictures/memories. Alonna won every contest there was to win. I hope a little of her luck rubs off on me. *wink wink*

Joanie even gave us a massage! It was Heaven

Ali did a great job on her scrapbook and I loved how she spelled things phonetically. This will be a fun tradition to have with her and we will always remember the fun together creating our scrapbooks.

The next one is in April if anyone is interested and wants to put a little money aside each week to go with us next time. Wahoooo! We would love to have you.

The bed was amazing...so comfortable, I don't think I have slept in a bed that nice at a hotel before. Maybe it was because I went to bed at 2:00, but it was great!

Sorry Dear

Well I didn't realize I was hurting my dear hubby's feelings by posting about my basement accomplishment. I was just trying to surprise him by getting all the junk that "I seem to hoard" out of the house. I didn't mean to imply that he is lazy to the whole world and that he couldn't do what my brother in law did. I do know that Dave is very capable of doing exactly what we did, he just didn't have to deal with the mess of it all. For the record...my husband is a great guy and I didn't mean to hurt his feelings by writing what I did. That wasn't my intent. :) If you haven't seen the post...it's ok. I removed it.

Fall Boutique

Just wanted you to know about the fall boutique. There will be lots of different vendors and just a fun day to go, and browse for Chirstmas gifts or even better....something for yourself. 14213 Fort Pierce Way in Herriman.

Ali's Good Friend Trent DuVal

UPDATE: Yesterday was an amazing day for me. I can't describe the feelings that I had at Chick-Fil-A. Some friends of mine at work decided it would be nice to go out to lunch and support Trent and his family. We work close to the Sandy Chick-Fil-A, so we went there for lunch. It was very nice to hear people say Trent's name and that they wanted to donate money for the cause, (Made me tear up). Then again last night we went as a family to The District and it was incredible. There were probably 30 cars waiting at the drive-thru and inside was so packed, no tables available, and the line wound around the entire inside of the store. The feeling and atmosphere were so great, and it brought me to tears once again. The silent auction items which were donated were being purchased well above the worth/value of the items. There were so many people there that the manager of Chick-Fil-A extended the silent auction until 10:00 pm. Alicyn took some money from her piggy bank and was so happy to hand it over. I was overwhelmed with different emotions, happy, sad, peace, love, and just glad that I could be there to experience it. I love how a community like ours can come together and help each other out at times of need. It didn't really seem like I did anything of significance. I still feel helpless, but I really hope that those little small acts make a big difference. I hope that the fundraiser was a huge success and that everyone that contributed feels like every minute they waited in line and every penny they gave will make a difference and help out the DuVal family.

Ali has a friend named Trent DuVal. They were in the same first grade class and were real pals. In July, just a month after 1st grade was over he found out he had leukemia. Alicyn was so distraught and asked me about him constantly. I tried so many ways to find out information about him for her. Never could get any where. We found out today that Trent will lose his battle shortly, and has come home from the hospital to spend his last few days with his family.

The minute I told Ali about him she burst out crying and spent a good part of today in tears and sobbing. We read his blog together and cried together. I held her for about 20 minutes while she cried, and it is so hard to sit and hold your child who is healthy and fine and know that somewhere just down the street a mom is holding her child who is the same age for maybe the last time on this earth.

I have put a link under family and friends so you can read about him and his incredible faith and testimony.

Ali has prayed for Trent in her prayers every day for 15 months. She cares about him and loves him. He teased her in school and she would come home and tell us about him, or just tell us a story of what they did that day.

To help Trent's family with the tremendous financial burden from medical expenses, Chick-fil-A of South Jordan will be donating 20% of the day's revenue on Monday, October 13th to Trent's family. Cash donations will also be accepted, and anyone making a donation of $10 or more will receive a coupon for a free Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich to be used on their next visit.In addition, Chick-fil-A of South Jordan will hold a silent auction from 12:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Auctioned items have been donated by local businesses and community members. All proceeds will go to Trent's family.Please,please, please help us in supporting Trent and his family! Call Chick-fil-A of South Jordan with any questions at (801) 727-2697 **Southtown, Ogden & Layton will be giving a % of sales as well, but only the District Location will have an auction and coupons for donations.

Ali

Suzuki Institute Fundraiser

Ali has the opportunity to go to Violin Institute again in the spring. This year it was held in June. Institute really fired her up, and she was excited to learn and practice all over again. She made new friends, learned new techniques and tips for practicing.

Miss Kayleen has organized a fundraiser again this year to help us with the price of tuition. All items are $14.00 and Ali gets 45% of the profit.

She will probably visit a few neighbors and family, if you would like to help out she would love it. She has asked me 6 times if I am going to buy something from her. She feels like she is working for her tuition by doing this fundraiser, which cracks me up. If you are interested orders/money needs to be turned in by October 29th.

THANKS! Click on the picture and it will enlarge so you can read the details.

3rd Grade Field Trip

In my group I had Ali, and her two friends Lauren and Katie.

I had the opportunity to go with Ali on her third grade field trip, Thursday, September 26th. This field trip was focusing on science and things they are learing in school right now. We were able to go the movie theater at Jordan Landing, the park in Copperton for lunch and on to the mine portion of Kennecott. It was really cool to see the open pit mine just a few days after we were at the concentrator with our family. The whole process just made a lot more sense and it was cool to see the ginormous dump trucks that my dad drives.

This is a shovel, loads the trucks. It was directly below me so I couldn't get a great shot.

We went to the movie theater's first and were able to watch about 10 to 15 minutes of previews. Then they split us up into smaller groups and gave us the grand tour. Showed us how everything works and popped fresh popcorn for all the kids. The manager told us that the movies they get on actual film still are rented for $5,000.00 and if they get scratched or damaged in anyway they have to purchase the movie but then still give it back to the film company. He also told us that 85% of our movie tickets go back to Hollywood, to pay the actors, production team and all that jazz. The movie theater runs almost solely on the concessions stand and that is why items are more expensive. The biggest portion of the concessions stand pays for operations of the movie theater, Payroll, Insurance, purchasing/renting movies etc. So that made a lot more sense to me and can see why it is around $8.00 a ticket.

We went to Copperton after that and had a nice lunch at the park. Very nice little park and town. I hadn't been there since my junior year in high school and our homecoming dance was at the old Bingham High there (that was years ago...shhhh).

Once we finished lunch they took us up to the visitor center at the mine. Again another very fascinating time for me. I could have stood there and watched for an hour or so. I am going to have to go back one time when my dad can go with me so he can show me the ropes. He was working that day and Ali and I watched for his truck. He said at the time we were there he was probably at the bottom of the mine. Which from where we were standing those monster trucks looked like little tonka's and it seemed like if we were close enough we could have picked one up with our fingers.

It was a fun mom and daughter day. I am glad I was able to go.

Kennecott Family Day

My dad retired two years ago and now works full time at the Kennecott Mine. In all my years living here I have never been to the mine, the visitor center or anything. It is really quite fascinating. Kennecott had a family day on September 20th for employee's and their families. We were all very happy to go, especially because it was dad's day off and he was able to go with us. We didn't go to the mine itself but we had a special tour of the concentrator where they crush all the rocks to a fine powder and mix different chemicals to get the different ore out of the powder.

On the bus tour portion of our day



Entering the concentrator with our safety gear on.

At the mine they remove all the rocks and ore and send it to the concentrator (which is to the north of the mine) on a 5 mile conveyor belt.

It was amazing to see the process and the kids had so much fun too. We had to wear protective eye wear and also ear plugs. It was stinky in there because they use sulfur and other chemicals -Emily had to put a pair of nose plugs up her nose so she didn't have to smell it. They provided lunch for us and also a canvas bag of stuff, which included a flashlight, a 20 year commemorative coin since the concentrator has been operating for 20 years now.

It was a fun family day. We were sad that Colby couldn't be with us and the rest of his family. We really think he would have liked to see how everything works too. Science is amazing!

Dad stayed out with Jaxsen the first round, only kids 5 and older could enter the concentrator. My kids loved it so much they wanted to go again, so we went back inside a second time so grandpa could see the action too.

These big drums behind Joe and Hayley are where rocks are placed first. Those are agitators or what they call ball mills, they have big steal balls in them that crush and break up the rocks. There are maybe 8 to 10 of these giant things working at the same time, so it is really loud. After the rocks are through with this process they are dropped out onto a conveyor belt (much smaller) and transfered over to the next piece of equipment that breaks them down even more and so on and so forth, until they are a fine powder.

A video of the ball mills:


This is the molybdenum floatation where they get all the molydebenum out of the rocks. The picture doesn't do it justice. I was really cool. It reminded me of big bubbles of mercury floating over the sides.

I forgot I took a video if you would like to see click play.

LUNCH

I thought this port-a-john was funny. Had to take a picture.



Our bus ride back to the parking lot where our cars were parked.