Ballgames Galore!

(I love how Austen is resting his arm on the helmet of his teammate!)



If you can believe it... our family attended six different games in six days! Normally we don't do any extracurricular activities on Monday, but it was Austen's playoff game, so we held our family home evening activity at the stadium!! Austen caught the first TD of the night and had an awesome defensive tackle later. He's really getting the hang of blocking for the running backs too!

The next two nights were spent watching Larson play some awesome defense in the flag football league. Boy is he speedy! Next was a couple nights of football for Presten. He plays JV and Varsity, so that means two seperate nights of games! He does a great job. On the Friday night game we even got to be on the Fox News TV show. The helicopter flew in and there was all kinds of hoopla for the sports guy! It just made the game all the more fun to watch. The JV team ended their season undefeated. (more on the Varsity later).

Then on Saturday we caught part of Naomi's games as she battled for the border-league championship. Volleyball is pretty fun to watch, and she did fabulous! Whew! Six days of games! Guess what? I loved every minute of it!

Fireplace Therapy

We had a bit of cold weather sneek up on us a week ago. Rick was just waiting for me to give him permission to build a fire in the stove insert that we bought last winter. Well, I gave him the okay one night after sitting outside all afternoon (probably at a ballgame). It was so wonderful!!! We all just congregated in the living room and sat watching the fire.

It reminds me of the words John Denver sang on Grandma's Feather bed...

(except the spit and chew part) :)

"After supper we'd sit around the fire

The old folks'd spit and chew

Pa would talk about the farm and the war

And granny'd sing a ballad or two

I'd sit and listen and watch the fire

Til the cobwebs filled my head.....

That's exactly the feeling you get when you sit and stare at the fire. Rick loves to tell people about his new therapy program... build a fire and then sit and stare at it until you fall asleep on the couch. I love to watch him when he falls asleep there all relaxed! The kids are especially excited to have a fire to wake up to in the morning. Unfortunately the cold spell passed and we're back to days in the 80's. So the fire therapy has been postponed for a few more weeks! But we're anxiously awaiting the nights of therapy again.

BEWARE!!! Blogging Blitz about to Begin

I have been saving up on the blogs. Quite frankly life has been rather hectic these last few weeks. So I took time today to download photos from my camera and made a folder just for photos to post about. So watch out, I'm going to throw them at you all in one clump. Check back often to make sure that you don't miss any! Happy reading! (Did I get enough B's in the title?)

One Less Teenager In The House!!

Today was another milestone in our house. We have one less teen in the house. Ashli turned 20 years old today. It is amazing to me how young that seems. I guess it's because I'm getting older. (I'm also in denial that any of my children could possibly be that old.) We don't really get to see Ashli much these days, but let me fill you in on what a great young lady she has become.

She is currently in her second year of college and doing fantastic. She loves her Biology class as well as sign language. She is a Presidential Ambassador and gets to meet new people and continue to develop her leadership skills. She is currently pursuing a degree in Radiation Therapy.

Ashli is a very talented musician. Her passion is to compose music and she is good at it. She looks forward to coming home so she can play the piano. She is AMAZING!

Ashli has great qualities. She is incredibly friendly and loves to help others. She has a strong desire to succeed and has the Beatty family spirit of competition. She sets high goals and shows great determination as she strives to reach them.

She is such a ray of sunshine in our family and we're so grateful she's ours!

Happy Birthday Ashli!!

My Table is FULL!

No, I'm not talking about food. I'm talking about people. It was general conference weekend, tradionally we go to the cabin on Kolob and spend the day listening to conference. The rain put a damper on our plans and we didn't end up going. Tia still came down to be with us, she had a blast taking photos in the rain. (She is getting really good!) Sunday morning came and the kids were sleeping in. Rick and I sat there in the morning silence and both commented on how much we wished that Ashli would've come home to be with us for the weekend. (It's so hard when your kids grow up and aren't around for all of life's little traditions). As I was busy with breakfast in the kitchen, who should be standing at the door.... it was ASHLI!!!!! She must have heard our hearts calling for her to come home.



The most thrilling part of the day was when we all sat down to the table for lunch. Yes, we put the leaf back in and every seat was filled! (see Something is Missing post) Just like the good ole' days. We ate and laughed and visited. And just like old times Dad told a story and kept us all on the edge of our seats as he shared the skill required to sneek up on a deer while bow hunting! Hilarious!



It was awesome!!! My table was full..... with the people I love the most in this world.



Hope your table is full!

Prince Charming goes to Homecoming

Couldn't resist posting photos of Presten looking very sharp for his homecoming date! They played olympics for the day-date, and Presten and Breann nearly swept it all, from volleyball to foosball and even guitar hero. Later that evening they got dressed up and all the parents met for a big photo shoot. Don't they look cute? Breann was most excited about her new hot pink shoes. Presten wears pink well too don't you think?

Growin up to be like Grandpa

So it was spirit week at the intermediate school this week, and one of the dress up days was career day. The kids all dress up in an outfit that represents what they want to be when they grow up. Most of Austen's friends were going to wear their football jerseys. Austen didn't want to do that because he thought "how likely is it that they will be pro football players"? After a few ideas tossed around, someone said how about a rancher. This was it! Austen loves to go the ranch with Grandpa Beatty. He looks forward to round ups and just hanging around all those great cowboys! So we started putting together a costume. He had the boots (Grandpa had just given them to him), he had the levis, belt and felt cowboy hat. The look was complete! The next morning Austen came downstairs all decked out in his costume looking pretty proud of his choice of careers. I kept hearing this jingling sound. I finally noticed a big set of keys fastened to Austen beltloop. I asked him about it and he said... "Grandpa always has a big set of keys fastened to his belt and they clink when he walks." Austen had even gone to the trouble of putting them on a fastner like Grandpa so he could mimick the way he takes his keys off to open a gate or door.

Ain't nothing better than being like your Grandpa... a true american rancher!