July 4th and other events

We have been very busy here are a few pictures of the many events that have us going and going. You'll have to excuse the crudity of the image Kaitlyn was the only one that remembered a camera and she's still learning.




For those of you that don't know this is none other then the Corbin Bleu. One of the girls many heart throbs.

Brooks and Dunn was the feature band at this years events. They did a good job of course. And of course the fire works were amazing if I knew how to post video I would show you.

The week of the 4th was also Jason's family reunion. They go camping together, these days usually at some resort campground. Its a lot of fun so we always go. This year though we only went for the day.







and for those of you who haven't met our new puppy this is Max. He's Jasons pure breed Austrailin sheepard just like he always wanted.

Oh, what do you do in the summertime...

Oh, what do you do in the summertime when all the leaves are green. One month down and only 2 to go, today like everyday we are trying to fill the time until school starts. The kids have there chores to do everyday but when that's done its always "mom I'm bored whats there to do". I of course being the mom I say "there is always work to be done" and then the kids say "I'm not that bored".

We have actually been very busy this summer. The kids have the pool in the back yard to play in and if that's to dull they can walk the 2 blocks to the public pool and play with there Friend there. They also like to go to the park by the pool and enjoy the free lunch the state provides for kids who's parents work (I know sounds what it sounds like but why not let my kids go I pay my taxes just like everyone else besides they get to see there school Friends and play at the park for a little while and I get some peace). The kids and I have also been spending alot of time in my garden, the radishes are ready and the tomatoes and peas are almost ready, we cant wait.

But today will be different one of Kaitlyn's Friend was in the hospital last week with a burst appendix and is not allowed to do anything more strenuous then walking so they will be going to entertain this poor little girl for an hour or two while I clean my messy house (that's one thing that never stays done with the kids home)

I really do like summertime and having the kids home. We get to sleep as long as we want and cuddle up in front of the TV and watch Mythbusters all day. (If only I could keep my house clean it would be perfect).

Fathers and Sons

Its our wards Fathers and Sons outing tonight. Jason took the boys and went up the canyon. So its just us girls tonight. They had a great time I gave them some money and they went to the Marion's for a burger and to a movie, (Surfs Up) with there cousins. So basically it was just me at home tonight I rather enjoyed it, I got the remote, I watched what I wanted, and it was quiet. I need to do this more often. Next week Jason will get a couple of nights home alone when I take the kids to Utah Valley with me on Tuesday, we have a Dentist apt. We are also staying for Strawberry Days in Pleasant Grove (cant miss those strawberry's and cream) and the rodeo Thursday.

Hopefully I wont forget my camera. I now some of you would rather see pictures, then read, much less boring!

Oh and one more thing, hopefully well be able to find us a new car, HURRAY!

It's been a while

I noticed today that it's been a while since I posted. We've been very busy. For those of you that new her and have not been told Jason's Grandma E died last week. She hasn't been doing very well for a couple of months now, and after a stroke on Tuesday, she was pretty bad. She died in her sleep at about 4 o'clock Thursday morning. She was a sweet lady and well loved by her family, and I'm sure it was a happy reunion with her husband that died almost 40 years before her.

Shelbie had a great time with the orchestra last week as well. The teacher had planned a day camp for all the students to attend. They went every day and learned 3 new songs, went to the movie (shrek 3), on Thursday they went to the pool, and on Friday had a concert to show off what they had learned. She had a great time and her group was really good at the concert. We forgot to take our camera so just imagine her sitting there with 30 other students holding a violin.

As for the rest of us were just trying to make it through the summer alive;)

To whom it may concern

To whom it may concern;

Due to a lack of time, I the management have hereby deleted all other blog spots except this one.

Thanks for your interest

The management.

The Making of a disaster

It is officially summer here in Roosevelt. The schools are out. The kids are happy. All my flowers are blooming. Does this sound like a disaster in the making to you?

Well it wasn't really not until Sunday night when we were happily heading to Debbie's house for the night to spend Memorial Day with my family and leave some flowers for my mother. You see we have been having trouble with our old but well loved Suburban, at the ripe old age of 19 you would expect a little sagging around the speedometer. But on this occasion the sag turned into a grind and with smoke billowing out from under the car we start to worry. We were about half way to Heber at this moment and ready to ascend the mountains before Strawberry. So with a little deliberation and a top speed of 40 mph, we decided to head back (I wanted to keep going, who were we going to find to fix whatever was wrong with the car in the podunk town of Roosevelt). In the process of limping home Jason figured out that something was wrong with the transmission (oh the horror). We hoped it was just a hose or something cheap and easy to fix. But with it being 19 years old...
Needless to say its cheaper to put old faithful out of our misery then fix.

So the disaster begins.

I hate car shopping

Mothers Day

Mothers day has come and gone. It never seems to last long enough. Jason was wonderful he waited on me hand and foot. Anything I wanted he did for me. The kids of course showered me with hugs, kisses and pictures a plenty. But as with all good things this to had to come to an end. Today were back to mom picking up the messes and giving the kisses. I've always loved being the mom and that hasn't changed but it was nice to be the one taken care of.

Today its back to the real world of cleaning I don't know what happens over the week end but on Mondays my house is always a mess. I cant wait till schools out and the kids will be home to clean up there own messes.

I know I haven't posted in a long time. The reason is simple its much to nice outside to be stuck here inside. The flowers are bloming the birds are singing I just love spring. For the last 2 weeks I have been outside preparing and planting flower beds a plenty. Jason and I are experiencing planting our first garden (I just hope the seeds come up). He tilled the earth, added some sunshine (munure), and then tilled some more. I laid out the rows, laid the seeds, and then laid out soaker hose on the rows. We are very excited! The kids have been helping to but there is still so much work still to do. When were done hopefully I'll remember to post pictures. But until then I have work to do;)

update

Since my Internet seems to be behaving itself today I will update on whats been going on. If you are an avoid reader of my blog you already know that over spring break we emptied Kaitlyn's and Amanda's room, pulled down the wallpaper to prepare for texture, paint and pull up the carpet to refinish the wood floors. What you don't know is whats happened since that weekend?

It seems to me that when it comes to home improvement projects there is this pattern of hurry up then wait. Jason and I couldn't texture on the weekend of the 7th because of family obligations, we don't have time during the week because of work, school, and church obligations. So Amanda and Kaitlyn happily spent the week sleeping on an air mattress in there room while I went crazy because all there bedroom furniture was and still is in my living room. Luckily the weekend came, Jason riped off the trim, up the carpet and did the texture all in one Saturday afternoon. It was great, progress! It dried all day Sunday and the rest is up to me, I do all the painting and after scrubbing the floors today Kaitlyn and Amanda will be able to help move there furniture back in this afternoon. There rooms not finished by any means, there is still refinishing the floors, buying new trim and new windows but until Shelbie's room is this far that will have to wait.

Whats on the schedule for next week, Shelbie's room :(

Spring Break

Last week was the kids Spring Break. It was a wonderful time for me and the kids. We had lots of things planned (at least I had lots of things planned), and as is always the case in these instances only a small portion of them actually got finished. We were going to tear down the wallpaper in both Shelbie and Kaitlyn's rooms, all we got to was Kaitlyn's. We were going to pull up the carpet in Shelbies room, she hasn't even gotten the furniture out of her room yet. They did get to play with there cousin Rylee on Wed. and Thur. with a sleepover Thur. night. Shelbie, Kaitlyn and I went to the eye doctor and all three of us are sporting new specs. and then on sat. came the big BBQ at grampa's with lots of cousins, boats, and an Easter eggs hunt. They had so much fun at grampa's, and its such a long trip to see every body, that they were too tired to go to church on Sunday. But it was a great holiday anyway and I was very thankful for all the time I got to spend with my kids!

As for all those projects well theres always Saturday...

Daddy Daughter Date

I have been trying for a week now to download these pictures, you see last Thursday was the girls Daddy Daughter Date. The theme for this years DDD was Derby racing and as you can see Daddy and his girls really got into this theme.







Besides making these cars and racing them on the track the girls and there dates made cars out of Twinkies and received awards. Kaitlyn's award was for the hottest pink car and Amanda's was for the fastest rocket car. Of course all the girls received awards, because they were all winners.




As for who had the fastest car, that we will never know...

Tomorrows the big day

Tomorrows the big day! McKenna Construction and Development Services (McDS) will be reopening there doors, HURRAY HURRAY! Yes, you guessed it McDS has found there new office and will be moving in tomorrow. The best part of this news, (as you who read my other blog may know)I will not be helping in the move! The best part is that it's only 5 blocks from home! So now Jason can get out of my office, and into his own.

Barnyard the movie

Tonight is Friday night the night in which the McKenna Family sit down together and watch a movie. This has been a tradition with us for many years. As most of you who know Jason he has seen just about every movie out there (it stems from when he was young and his dad owned a video store). He of course wants to share this love of movies with his own kids, hence Friday night movie night.

Tonight the movie of choice was Barnyard. The kids have all seen this a few times (we ordered the pay-per view before we left, thank you TiVo). I don't know if you have ever watched a movie after your kids have seen it but its like torture to keep them from telling you everything that's happening before it happens but. I digress, it was really an enjoyable movie if you can get past the barnyard errors (ie male cows do not have utters). The kids loved it and Jason laughed the whole way through it so I would have to rate this movie a 2 and maybe a half. Its one that is defiantly pay-per view worthy but not one will buy.

So pop some popcorn put your feet up and watch a movie (its one the cheapest entertainment out their).

Week in review

Its been a while since I have updated so here's whats been going on. I helped in Amanda's class on Monday for school, they where making masks the African kind for their school program on Monday.

On Tuesday I helped Jason with work in Vernal then that night I sat at home and nursed a headache while I tried to get the boys bathed. Shelbie and Jason were at YM&YW(sometimes I hate the fact that Shelbie's 12).

on Wednesday I again helped Jason in Vernal this time to move out of his office there and this time nursed a migraine. I thing I'm allergic to moving.

Thursday was spent again with that same migraine from Wednesday (is my period coming?)so I did a lot of laying around when I could. When I wasn't laying around I was helping Jason again this time to find an office here in town.

Friday in Vernal in the morning shopping for the kids so Jason's and I could go on are big Anniversary trip (without any kids). I had to get the kids all squared away with food and so forth so that Jason's mom and sister could watch them while we were gone. then before we left for are Anniversary trip (without any kids) we needed to go to Amanda's school program (it was very cute but then we were only there long enough to see her part so how could it be anything but)then off on are Anniversary trip (without any kids) which was nothing special we were just going to stay at a hotel in Lehi (without any kids) and spend all are time at the movies, and at our favorite restaurants. Which we did when we weren't shopping at the mall.

On monday it was chechout time and we were off to Debbies to help her find a reliable used car which we did. After she got the car of her dream we all went to lunch and then Jason and I headed back home and the next two days I spent at home due to food poisoning

That brings us to today. Which I spent most of cleaning up the house because when moms sick nothing gets done. I also went with Jason to put money down on his new office here in town (hurray), went to lunch and got things ready for enrichment tonight. So now everyone knows whats been going on.

Moving again

On the move again Just can't wait to be on the move again...

Jason is moving. No not out of our house but out of his office. His year lease is up and since he hates to work in the office we gave it up and he is moving his office home, where will put all that office stuff who knows. We already have an office at home complete with a computer, a fax/printer and lots of shelves. What I don't know is where were going to put the computer, fax/printers, desks and filing cabinets from his office. Maybe its time to build on.

It's not the regular office stuff that has me concerned as much as the irregular stuff. You see in Jason's line of work they have to do a lot of printing, stuff like city plans and blue prints or plats as there called. With this type of printing you need really big printers or plotters as there called there big ugly and since they have processors like computers and because Jason's is really old it temp. sensitive so its not like we can stick it in the garage because it doesn't like the cold.

Its just temporary, hopefully. Jason wants to move in with an Engineer in Vernal he works a lot with, while I want him to work closer to home, an office here in town would be nice (this is too close to home). Will have to wait till May when there suppose to move into there new office to find out who wins.

Happy Anniversary

I know its been a while and I'm getting as bad as my brothers so here's the update.

Today is the big anniversary, yahoo. Its been 13 years since Jason and I said "I do". It doesn't seem possible to me and as most anniversary's do, I tend to think back to the beginning. Jason was just 19 when we were married and some people in the world today would be shocked by how young he was, but he has always been and still is a good husband and daddy to us. I'm sure at times its been rough on him to have to support me and the kids but he never complains. He has always wanted me to do what makes me happy whether that's staying home with the kids or working. I will always wonder how I was so lucky as to be the one to marry such a wonderful man.

As for what we are doing to celebrate we are going to Terabithia tonight with the kids

Happy Valintine's Day to all!

Jason and I don't really celebrate Valentines Day, and to be honest we never really have. We tell each other and our kids we love them every day, so it wouldn't be any different then any other day, anyway. As for Jason and brings me flowers he does that all year long. Jason and I did go out to dinner though. It wasn't planned or anything we were just out and it was dinner time.

This Valentine's Day was different though I had to spend all day planning an activity for my Achievement days girls, it was fun. I baked 26 heart shaped cookies and let the girls do the decorating. They seemed to be having a contest to see how much candy they could get to stick to the cookies. They did one for there mothers and one for themselves and made a huge mess of the churches kitchen. But they all had a good time, I hope.

So that's our Valentines, not much to it huh.

Our big celebration, the one that I look forward to every year, will come in another 2 weeks! We have it all planned out and I am so Excited!

But that's all for know, its been a very long day, and I'm on my way to bed.

Midnight..

Some time in early December on a peaceful Sunday morning. My family and I were on are way to church. We were early as we usually are and there were but a few cars in the parking lot. As we left the car and headed into the building the quiet of the morning (after all it was 9 am) was pierced my an insistent and desperate cry, MEOW MEOW MEOW. So I with great concern head of to find the noise and to my distress I found in the engine well of a car a tiny little kitten. This poor desperate little kitten was black as night and couldn't have been more then 8 weeks old if that. As I pulled the poor thing from its warm but dangerous perch inside the car it clung to me and I wondered where this poor thing had come from. the car it was insides licence said that it was from vernal over 15 miles away. I thought there is no way it came from Vernal. I knew it had to be from close by. I had no time to find the owner at that moment church was to start soon, so we stowed the kitten in our car for safe keeping.

After church we took the kitten home it was cold and hungry and had a small scrape on its chin. After we feed it Jason looked it over carefully and decided that the poor thing had been kicked out either by its mom or the owner (that kind of thing happens alot in small towns). Jason and I decided that we could keep it and named it midnight the same as the cat Jason had growing up. He has been a wonderful addition and everyone loves him (even fickle Cinder).

The reason I'm bringing up this story, or the reason I was even thinking about it is that poor little midnight isn't so little anymore. He is know the size of a normal cat. With normal cat tendencies, ie. scratching and running around at all hours of the night. So as he is a boy and to avoid any other tendencies we had him fixed and declawed this week. Its so sad when there done and they come home and they don't even want to stand on those little paws because they're hurting. But its what has to be done if they want to live with me. He will now be able to be a happy addition to our family.

RENT VS OWN

I'll my life I have wanted to own my own home. How wonderful it would be to own our own home. I mean just think of the possibilities. You could hang a picture anywhere you wanted, (and if your like me put as many holes in the wall to hang said picture) you can tear down the ugly paneling or put up ugly paneling, whichever you wanted. I was always so excited about the possibilities. Dreaming of what it would look like how many rooms or bathrooms it would have. It was one of my favorite things to dream about, and even though I now have a home of my own I still like to dream and plan the next home of my dreams.

But I digress with all my dreaming I thought owning would be this wonderful magical thing. That nothing would ever go wrong, and we would always have the money to make the improvements that we wanted to. Now that the wool has been pulled out from in front of me I'm starting to think that renting is better. After all if the pipes brake or the dishwasher stops running all you have to do is call the landlady and she has to find someone to fix it. Or when I'm tired of looking at the same four walls day in and day out I can pick up a paper and dream of moving somewhere else.

So I guess what I'm saying is that you should be happy with what you have because the grass ain't always greener on the other side.

We found it

For those of you that might be worried we found the beep. Some how in the process of moving Jasons parents out and us in, the carbon mon. detector got shoved into a closet where it has remand until today. It seems that the battery ran out and thats what the beep, beep, beep is all about. Thank goodness;)

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP.

we live in an old house, very old from the looks of things. It was built we guess in the 1950 or some time close to it. There are some nice things about buying an older home, for instance we have a great bath tub its not very long but it deeper then your average fiberglass tub and it made of cast iron if you have never bathed in a cast iron tub then I'll explain. Cast iron is hard and cold until you heat it up then it will stay warm for a long time so you could sit and soak for 30 min or more with out having to heat the water back up. Another great thing about this house is that it has hardwood floors through out the main floor and not the cheep stuff you can buy now its at least 1" thick so when we sand it down it looks beautiful. But there are some down sides to like the 50 year old plumbing and electric, and the down side I'm experiencing today, you see I have a mysterious beep going on and I can seem to find it. It sound suspiciously like a fire alarm or carbon mon. detector but again I cant find it. It goes off about every 5 min and only for about a dozon beeps then it stops I have looked in the back bedroom which is where the sound seems to come from and its no where to be see so I am left with an anouing beep, beep, beep. I think its in the attic but why would someone put a fire alarm in the attic, well it will have to bug me for the rest of the day until I can get Jason to find it I just hope its batteries are dying and not that something else is wrong:/

Familys; ya gotta love em part due

Hello again. It seems that my little rant has ruffled a few feathers so let me reassure everyone I am not talking about you. I love my family there great and if I should need a kidney I know that they would be their for me through it all. So family stop fretting
Thank you

Family's, ya gotta love em

My family is crazy all of us are certifiable nuts theirs not a sane won in the bunch and believe me 8 kids is a bunch. We all seem to have our own little psychosis going on and I always wonder where it came from. My mother was a kind loving woman, just ask anyone she worked with they all loved her and she was a wonderful nurse loving and kind to the preemies she cared for. My dad a competent and friendly teacher he loved those poor handicapped kids he worked with for years and was very good at handling all their needs. so I ask you how to seemingly normal adults could raise such misfit kid? Some of my sisters insist it was all my mothers fault she was great at work but at home she was depressed and ornery (according to those sisters)all the time. To some of my other sisters my dad was distant and emotionally unavailable. So do you want to know what I think? I think that to a point (and not a very sharp one) that there both right. I think my parents did the best they could with what they new at the time that they loved us and wanted the best for us but like all parents, including me, had no idea what the best thing was and now that were all adults its time to forgive and forget and stop blaming all are problems on the two people who loved us the most. After all Heavenly Father gave us free agency to so use it to change for the better and forgive the past, then and only then will our private crazies heal!

SICK OF THE COLD!!

I've always liked January, it's usually my favorite month, but for some reason this year I'm really starting to hate it. Why, you might ask, well I feel like I have not stopped moving all month. I hate to be busy I love being a stay-at-home mom so I can stay at home with the most important activity in my day being to clean house and fold laundry. That is usually my life and I have always loved it when its cold I bundle up, snuggle into the couch, turn on some old movie, pull out whatever project I'm working on at the time, and stay out of the cold. Whether it be painting, crocheting or, whatever just as long as its indoors. The only thing I enjoy more is snuggling up with a good book or series of good books you know the kind that seem to continue on forever, ie Children of the Promise or some Anita Stanfield's. But this year it has been nothing but running here or hurrying there and I'll tell you what I'm worn out. This week I have run around town for errands, to Pleasant Grove for the Dentist, and to drop off reminders for Activity Days, as well as piano, preschool, and Kindergarten. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't so !@#!$% cold. Thankfully spring is coming and with it summer and soon I'll be sitten by the pool baskin in the sun.

Lets just keep thinking about that "K"

winter came, over night

BEFORE



AFTER




The snowy pictures are from the 12th of January
The not snowy pics are a week earlier

As most of you have heard it is very cold in our neck of the woods in fact it has been well below 0 degrees for over a week now. Debbie and Heidi both have called to ask how were managing the cold well we've been just fine unfortunately the same can not be said for our ward meeting house as Jason was sitting in his presidency meeting this morning one of the pipes in the church house burst it had frozen over the last week and when they started to use the water today, for the other wards sacrament, the kitchen started filling with water. Thankfully it was Sunday and people were there to catch the leaking before water was everywhere but they had to shut off the water to the entire building so no church today:( and all meetings have to be held at ward members houses. What does this mean for me you might ask? Well as an Activity days leader I will be, for the time being, hosting 10 to 15 girls ranging in age from 8 to 10 years old, YIKES. So, Wednesday of this week my little home will be over run will I, hopefully, teach them to crochet. Wish me luck;)

For some reason my dad has put me in charge of the Brenchley family history. I am in charge of calling all my sisters and brothers (there are 8 of us total) and getting information on all the kids and grandkids, birthdays baptisms ect.. I called Debbie first, shes been the hardest to pin down, after she gave my 3 or 4 dates and places she had to go, again. So next I called Heidi, after all she has her info plus everyones phone#, but after talking to her for an hour it was to late to call anyone else. At this rate it will take all year! So, for those of you in the Brenchley Family, please please e-mail (april@mckennacds.com) me your Family Group Sheet if you have it if not be expecting a call from me, and have the info ready, thank you.

good bye puppy

We had a puppy but alais it is no more. You see the puppy has gone to a new home. One, we hope is better and warmer but still shes gone and will not return.



Shes a cute puppy and very smart but she wasnt quite what Jason wanted(He wants a Australian Shephard-red merle coloring with blue eyes). So when Trevor was just dieing to have one of her sisters or brothers and none were available Jason gave him his puppy. The kids all agreed that that would be best so on sunday afternoon of we went to meet her new family, half way of course. It was a pleasnt drive and Nook thats the puppys name seemed to love her new owner. So alls well that ends well right.

We gave our puppy a bath what do you think?





Isn't she the cutest. We didn't put bows in this time because she doesn't like them. So, she can't see very well, last time we left them out she ran into Shelbies bedroom door.

DJ received a remote controlled car from Santa but this is the bow and arrow set that Jordan gave him (Oh boy, there goes my breakables).


Shelbie with her new nano, such a teenager. Santa seemed to know just what she needed (and what her mom and dad needed to, peace and quiet).


Amanda didn't know what she wanted so Santa brought her 4 little stuffed animals from Build-A-Bear and a gift card to Build-A-Bear so she could pick out what she wanted. Don't they fit nicely in DJ's remote car.


Santa gave Kaitlyn a digital camera, know if she could just figure out how to use it!


Jordan received a wooden train from Santa just what he ordered.

I know its kinda late for Christmas pictures but I'm still trying to figure this out we had a great Christmas everyone got what they wanted. They all received new bedding, robes and slippers from mom and dad. Jason and I also received new robes and slippers and the greatest gift of all a happy family.

The Beginning

As I sat here in my "office" looking over the blogs of my family and feeling that even though I live in the wilds of Utah I'm at least able to visit the lives of my family. So I have decided to join the ranks of my sister Wendy and blog. A writer I am not and my spelling and grammar skills are some what archaic, I promise to do my best not to offend. I still have no idea what I will say on this or if I, like my brother Scott, will start this and never write in it again. I find it rather intimidating that anyone in the world could read this and judge me, or my life, but I'm going to leave that to your conscience.