Henson Family Blog

Kansas city Half Marathon

2008-10-18T21:07:00.002-07:00

Hey all. I just wanted to let you all know that I completed the half marathon today. It was super awesome and emotional all at once. It's also John's One year deployment date so it was a cause for some uplifting positive activity. He's also turning 30 on Monday!!! Woah, that's old. ;) I posted pictures and such on my blog so check it out. Hope to find you all well and happy. Love you.

http://tribefusion.blogspot.com

Larry & Kerry Married 40 Years!

2008-10-05T14:19:00.004-07:00

Can you believe it? Me neither. Larry says, "I'm too young to be this old!" We were married on Conference weekend, 1968.
We were talking about what a great life we have had together. We decided that in another 40 years, we'll be 100.
The Utah kids came for a dinner after the last session of conference.
The 2 new babies were so cute together!
Sasha Henson (parents Aaron & Becky) is on the left, and Abriana Mason (parents Mike & Heidi) is on the right. Sasha is 5 weeks and Abri is 2 months.

I am now a blogger

2008-09-24T12:43:00.003-07:00

Hello family. I am so jealous that I am not in Utah to sit and play with those two beautiful new girls. They are so precious. Congrats to Heidi, Michael, Becky and Aaron; you breed well. ;)

I am officially a blogging fiend. I decided to attempt to journal online. Being that we will move frequently and items get lost, I am trying to put as much as possible online to avoid the aforementioned problem. So please check it out and give me your comments. I'd love to hear them, but really only if they are good. he he he. I love you all and hope you are fabulous.

http://tribefusion.blogspot.com

Alyssa

Larry's Big Hike; Pix by Aaron

2008-08-18T15:23:00.010-07:00

Dad's big hike this year was August 6-9 to Grandaddy Lake in the High Uintas. There were 4 who went: Larry, Aaron, Dad's boss Wynn, and his friend Dick. After several flash-boom thunderstorms like only the Uintas can do, they came home a day early. What a glorious time!
All family men and friends invited every year. They will go in the first Wednesday in August, and come home on Saturday. Start planning now to come next year!
The photo below is a stitch done by Aaron of Grandaddy Lake.
Click on the title of this post, "Larry's Big Hike." It's a link that will take you to more of Aaron's pix of the hike.

Abriana Mason Has Arrived!

2008-08-14T15:11:00.004-07:00

Heidi and Michael Mason are the proud parents of Abriana Jeanne Mason. She was born August 12, at 2:36 p.m., weighed 7 pounds and 1 ounce, and was 19 1/2 inches long.

She is SO CUTE!

Headline: Best-ever Grandma Camp Held in Washington, D.C!

2008-07-15T07:57:00.008-07:00

Larry had a conference in Washington, D.C. , so we all decided to join him for a fabulous week !

Troy and Angela brought the kids to D.C. and got rooms in the same hotel as us. The Hyatt is just 3 blocks north of the Capitol Building, so we could walk to the Mall and take the Metro everywhere.
We got a tour of the Capitol through Senator Bennett's office and it was really cool, because we got to take the little train under the street from the Senate Office Building to the Capitol and come up underneath. We saw the House and Senate Chambers and got to go lots of places ordinary tourists don't.

Early one morning we rushed over to the Washington Monument and got tickets for our whole group (13 people) to go up at 6:00 that evening. That was really fun!

We also visited:
Holocaust Memorial, where the cast-off shoes made a big impression
Lincoln Memorial
Viet Nam Memorial
Air and Space Museum, complete with tour led by Larry
National Cathedral which was really cool because we got to get up in the tower and see the flying buttresses from the roof
Bureau of Engraving & Printing, where we saw them making $1 bills
Kennedy Center, with guided tour by a French artistic-type lady
Arlington National Cemetery (twice) and we got to see the changing of the guard and the mast from the battleship Maine (Remember the Maine!)
Old Post Office Tower, where we could see all over DC
Natural History Museum which has FABULOUS JEWELS, including the Hope Diamond and the diamond crown worn by Napoleon's wife.
Rode the Metro and the bus all over town
Swam in the hotel pool lots!
We really enjoyed a do-it-yourself paddle-boat ride on the river.

The last night was pure magic! We went to dinner with the whole family. Then we went over to our favorite fountain to write in our journals so we could remember everything we did. The moon was up and the Capitol was nearby and all lit up and there were even fireflies! Afterward we played in the fountain until the police came and kicked us out very sweetly, saying maybe we should not be in the water because homeless people and dogs bathe there. We left happily!

Trip to Visit Alyssa in Tennessee

2008-05-04T22:17:00.010-07:00

Larry & Kerry had the most fabulous vacation going to see Alyssa! Kentucky and Tennessee are green and lush and we did SO many fun things!

We worked on Alyssa's front yard and made it all pretty with new bushes and flowers.

Wendy & Chris and the boys came to visit too; we had the most fun!

If you click on the title of this post, it's a link to my Flickr page to show you more pictures.

My new house!

2008-05-04T21:33:00.001-07:00

So, I am finally settled into my house! Hurray!

Beach Bathroom

2007-12-25T20:20:00.001-07:00

Hey Everybody!
I made the bathroom by the garage into a beach theme. The wallpaper gave us absolute fits because we trimmed it too close, but now it looks really nice. I use turquoise towels and put the kids' pool toys in the basket.

One more thing...

2007-12-18T22:16:00.000-07:00

This is for those of you who have not seen Benjamin "live". We miss you and love you!

Love, Wendy

It's a busy time at the Kollers

2007-12-18T21:55:00.000-07:00

As always, this season is very busy at our house, but I thought it would be nice for you to see a little of what we've done and how we look-our how the kids look-I'm not sure if there are any pictures of me since I'm usually behind the camera! Busy, busy, busy-for sure!

Also-FYI-I've had steroid injections in my SI joints, and my pier formis muscle (I have no idea how to spell that one) and am now able to walk pretty well-I even vacuumed out the car! Life is good! I like having control of my life again!

Merry Christmas everyone!

The Kollers

My house at Christmas

2007-12-18T21:45:00.000-07:00

We've had a lot of fun this year decorating-you can't see all of it, but I don't know if I'll ever get a better picture-Mom, I hope that you like these!

Love you!

Wendy

I just had to do it...

2007-12-18T21:43:00.000-07:00

Lyssa-this is for you!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1550992083

It was totally fun and I encourage our entire family to do the same-too bad they only allow 4 faces-it would have been fun to elf our entire family at one time! :)

Love you!

Wendy

Merry Christmas

2007-12-16T20:36:00.000-07:00

You have to see this! You will laugh your head off. Merry Christmas from the Tribes!
Hey, I just made a total elf of myself. Check it out by clicking the link below. Or copying and pasting in your URL space.

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1473469854

This elfin' greeting brought to you by OfficeMax®.

Christmas Lights

2007-12-10T09:18:00.000-07:00

Wendy wanted me to post pictures of the house with lights on it, so here they are. She said she would do the same. Her house is so lovely this year that people stop when they drive by! Wendy, let us see!

Putting Up Christmas Trees

2007-11-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

I guess I'm getting in the Christmas spirit, or at least in the mood to have the trees up. I put the big tree downstairs this year and bought some new oversize balls. I decided to put some blue on it to go with the couches. I am really pleased with how it turned out! The blue has some turquoise in it, which made a fresher-looking contrast with the red and gold.

Everything below waist high is unbreakable, so when Alyssa brings her dogs, there can't be any catastrophes. At least not if we get them tied up! The trees, that is!

Guess what! After I put the downstairs tree up, I found the nutcracker ornaments which had been lost for several years. They needed a tree all their own, so I put up a tree in my office on top of the filing cabinets. It has the straw ornaments from Germany, the olive wood ornaments from Israel, the nutcrackers (bought in Germany but made in China, of course, because I am too cheap to buy the real German nutcrackers,) and the Turkish lanterns.

Justin's video

2007-11-10T05:37:00.000-07:00

More pics of the Kollers

2007-11-10T05:28:00.001-07:00

Pictures of Benjamin's blessing, trick-or-treating at Daddy's work, and Hayden beginning "the training" (not going so well, by the way).

What's going on at the Koller's

2007-11-10T05:02:00.000-07:00

New baby, doctor's appointments, Halloween, shots for everyone, preschool for Justin, the list goes on and on, but I thought that I should show you a few pictures-since I finally downloaded them to the computer (actually, Chris did it). Love you all! Wendy

Rob's project made the front page of the paper

2007-11-05T15:17:00.000-07:00

So last weekend Mom, Dad, and Kim came up to Logan to help with a community wetlands restoration project that Rob organized. Thank you! It made the front page of the Herald Journal! link

I'll put up pictures if I ever download them from my camera :)

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch in Layton . . .

2007-11-04T22:12:00.000-07:00

Kim is busier than a one-armed paper hanger, but tonight she came racing into the house after her church meeting in a hurry to "read stories to Justin & Hayden on the internet." I sneaked into her room and took this picture without her catching me! Notice she is showing the pictures in the book to the boys over a video conference on her computer. Love, Mom

So, I'm on a roll now

2007-11-03T19:19:00.000-07:00

So, I saw this commercial on the Army channel and thought you all would like to see it too. It makes me more than proud, honored to be part of the Army family. You all should too, as you are all part of the extended Army family. This is also somewhat of an explanation as to why I am staying in Tennessee while John is away. I love you all and hope that you take the time to watch this movie. Oh, and I saw another one that was super cool too. So here are the links for the videos. (Shelley, something on my computer wouldn't let me just add the link, so just copy the URL everyone).

Army Family, Army Strong commercial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5RIHo5rh3c

Army Strong commercial that is really touching:
http://www.forscom.army.mil/reeng/1-G8/G8_Army_Strong.htm
click on the high resolution link on the lefthand side of the screen

Love you all! Families are strong. Army Families are Army Strong!

take two

2007-11-01T14:50:00.000-07:00

Apparently, I am a little technologically challenged. Here's the website to the video, or you can go onto youtube.com and type, "remember me". It's the first viedo on the page that says, "I need to know" on a green screen. Here's the website:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ervaMPt4Ha0

cool viedo that you all should watch

2007-11-01T14:26:00.000-07:00

Hey there everyone. I was looking for package ideas for John and happened upon this video that is about soldiers. It will totally make you cry but it's worth it. I hope you all have a great week and are actually looking at the blog. ;) Oh, and here's the website where I found a cool list of items to send to John if you want to make a package too.

http://thefuntimesguide.com/2005/09/soldierpackages.php

Love you!

John's in Iraq (but right now he's in Kuwait)

2007-10-25T15:25:00.001-07:00

Hello all! Well John's officially deployed for another 415 days, but who's counting right. These are pictures of him right before he got on the bus and left. He is currently in Kuwait training for three weeks until he goes to Iraq to provide protection for the battery's Colonel and other high ranking guys. I really don't know much about what's going on there, but I did get a chance to talk to him today. WAHOO!!! I also received an email from him stating that we could send him packages and mail; The address he gave me was in Iraq and he's in Kuwait so I'd recommend that if you are sending him a package to leave out the perishables until further notice. We really appreciate any support everyone could give him while he's away for so long.
I'm doing well in the land of hillbillies. ;) Really, it's quite nice out here and I've been making lots of friends who are in the same situation I am in, so it's going well. I can tell that there have been prayers on my behalf so thank you. Aussie and Sugar are well. They sure seem to play a lot and get into more than their fair share of mischief. Sugar needs to be trained still, but that's something that I plan on doing in the near future.
Life is good, I have my good days and my bad days but so does everyone else. I love you all and would love to have everyone write john emails or send packages. You are the best.

Here's Johns email:
liberalmocker@yahoo.com

Here's John's address:

2LT John Tribe

HHB, 1-320th FAR

2BCT 101st ABN DIV (AASLT)

CAMP LIBERTY

UNIT #43081

APO AE 09344-3081

We love you all! God bless America (and my soldier)!

Cooky Graduates from Nursing School

2007-10-12T21:55:00.000-07:00

The GREAT NEWS is that Cooky graduates tomorrow from Nursing School! Classes are not finished until around Thanksgiving, but she will walk tomorrow.

Way to go, Virginia!

Ceremony is in the Provo Tabernacle Saturday, October 13 at 10:00 a.m. She didn't really invite anyone, but you're all welcome to come. Mom and Ralph and I are going; so are all her kids. We are all so proud of her!

Afterward we all went to The Brick Oven in Provo for pizza. If you were there a really long time ago, it was called Heaps o' Pizza. We had a great time.

Marilynne Update

2007-10-12T21:47:00.000-07:00

I have to tell you the sad news that my Aunt Marilynne, King's sister, passed away this afternoon at Charley's house in Kansas City. She was 89. She was the funnest aunt in the world, opinionated and feisty. It's interesting that Dad died almost exactly one year ago tomorrow, on Friday the 13th of October, 2006.

We Are Scattering

2007-10-12T21:40:00.000-07:00

It seems our family is scattering all over, away from home. Larry is gone to Oregon for 9 days for his conference, Lys is in Tennessee and John leaves for Iraq next week. Wendy and Chris and boys are in South Carolina, Heidi is in Orlando. Troy and Angela and kids are of course in Detroit, Shelley and Rob in Logan, and Aaron and Becky in Salt Lake. My Mom came to visit, and there's no one here but Kim and me! Come home, my fly-away children!

Mom Started New Job

2007-08-30T20:04:00.000-07:00

I started a new job last week. I am teaching choir half time at Central Davis, the same school where 4 of you kids went to junior high. I teach 3 classes every afternoon: General Music, Boy's Choir, and Concert Choir. I've had 2 days with students, and so far it has been pretty good. The other choir teacher has been there for years, and she teaches in the mornings. The cool thing is that if I want to be gone, like to Wendy's next week, she will take my classes. I will do the same for her when she wants to be gone. I guess you would call it a job share. This is what I have always wanted to do: job share a junior high choir position. So far, I really like it!

Ranger John

2007-07-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

Well it's official... John has graduated from Ranger school and is now a Ranger. WAHOO!!!!! We are so excited and I am so proud of John.
It's been a long year and a half of schooling for John and he is beginning Airborne school on Friday. All of Johns family came and we even represented with Kim, Wendy, Justin and Hayden coming from the Hensons. It was super hot, but really cool. There was a show before the graduation demonstrating what a Ranger learns and does; it was very exciting.
Thanks to Wendy, Kim, Justin and Hayden for coming it really meant a lot to us and made the experience so much more fun.
John and I decided that since he had some free time we would go on vacation to Orlando. It was a fast and super fun trip. We went to all the Disney parks (Animal Kingdom excluded) and went to both Universal Theme parks. John has a friend that is a paramedic for Universal so he gave us passes for free. Way fun.
We're loving being together again but nissing Aussie. Thanks to Mom, Dad, Shelley, Rob and Jasper for watching over him and making sure he doesn't cause too much mischief. We love you all andhope you are doing well. Have a great week!!!!

You too can be a star

2007-07-05T14:29:00.000-07:00

Have you ever had a song that just stuck in your head and you couldn't remember what it was or who sang it? If you have a microphone on your computer, you can now sing it into http://www.midomi.com/ and it will find it for you.

You can also record yourself singing any song you like. I'll pay any of you a dollar to put a song up.

Summer in South Carolina

2007-07-05T05:25:00.000-07:00

Talk about a fabulous summer so far! I've been in South Carolina with pregnant Wendy and her fun family for about a week and a half. We've had SO much fun! Alex Leffler came over for a week and we've had a fabulous time! I'll be honest with you, the first few days, I was so hot from the humidity that I didn't want to eat or drink anything. However, the breezes have kicked up quite a bit, and life is good now.

As you would expect, Justin and Hayden can't put down their light sabers and we've laughed a lot together.

Last night, for the fireworks, Hayden was so impressed! He kept saying, "BAM!" every time a firework went off. That's a boy after my own heart, I'll tell you what. When they were over, he was so happy, he said, "I"m proud of you" because he couldn't really express how he was feeling. It was so fun to see the 4th of July through kids' eyes. Justin only covered his ears a few times because it was so loud. Lee Greenwood, the singer who sang, "Proud to be an American" also came! What a fabulous day it was! We also had a pancake breakfast at Wendy's ward. The mayor came as well as a lot of military dignitaries. Hurray! :)

Check out my photos on my flickr account. We've gone to the beach, to the Magnolia Plantation, to downtown Charleston and the battery, to Cypress Gardens, and to the festivities for the 4th. I wish you all were here to share this experience with me. :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimhenson/show/

Pool Craned Over the House!

2007-06-26T21:16:00.000-07:00

Today the pool arrived! It had several major hassles and it took them 5 hours to do the job, but it now sits in place in the back yard!

Notice that there are two pools on the truck. Unfortunately, ours is the one on the bottom. It was loaded that way at the factory in California for safer transport. Our pool contractor was not happy!

After much discussion over who would take responsibility in the event of a mishap, it was decided to first crane the top pool onto our front yard. (This pool is going to Park City, or they would have just delivered it first.)

Notice our pool in the background is still on the truck.

Larry had to bend the weeping cherry out of the way.

After they got the other pool out of the way, they lifted our pool off the truck.

Here you see our pool flying over the top of our house. Because the distance was too great for the weight of the pool (2800 pounds, Ralph!) it had to be set down in the back yard of the house next door.

The neighbors have been great to allow us to drive on their new sod (ruined), turn off their sprinkling system for 2 weeks (in 100- degree heat), and take apart and cap their sprinklers so the trucks could drive over them. Tonight we told them that we aren't going to charge them for their half of the fence. Seems only fair . . .

After they put the other pool back on the truck, they moved the crane so they could lift our pool into its' hole. Finally!

It's in! Hooray! Neighbors keep coming by to see. The guys across the street had a beer party with their friends to watch the show!

Zachido Barachido

2007-06-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

How much stuff can you fit on a La-zy-Boy? Well, according to Justin, this is his list. (and what he put on the chair)
1. Mommy 2. Justin 3. Hayden 4. Shivers 5. Lightsabers-4 of them 6. walkie-talkies-2 of them 7. one compass 8. one map 9. 2 toy guns 10. 1 chain (to catch the monsters) 11. one toy dagger 12. 2 swords 13. Mommy's magazine that she was reading when all of this started.

We then go on our "safari" in our Safari Jeep. Justin looks at the map, decides where Africa is and uses his compass to find out which way to go. We're off. It's a little bumpy on the road, so Justin picks up his walkie talkie and calls up his friend "Zachido Barachido" to smooth out all of the bumps and holes in the road. Hayden answers on his walkie talkie and says, "Awright" and on we travel. We soon come to the monsters. Out come the lightsabers, and Justin holds off the monsters until Mommy and Hayden can shoot them with the guns. Justin ties up the monsters with his chain, and then we enjoy a nice leisurely ride back to our house with the monsters in tow. We never do use the dagger and swords, but I'm sure we'll try again soon.

A Dangerous Book for Boys

2007-06-25T15:21:00.000-07:00

This book seems to have been a hit. It's written for boys... What every boy should know :) Mothers are talking about it here... http://mother-talk.com/wp/?p=70

Or check out the book's website.

Digging Our Pool!

2007-06-24T14:50:00.000-07:00

Last week they started digging our pool. First they dug out a flat place. Then they spray - painted the shape of it on the ground, plus 6 inches all around. It will be a fiberglass pool, all in one piece like a giant bathtub. A big semi truck is hauling it here from California. Hopefully it will be delivered this week, and a crane will lift it over the house. Then they hook up the mechanics (filter, heater, vacuum). Next they start to fill it with water and at the same time put sand around the outside, keeping the levels even. Last comes the concrete around the edge.

The digger used a transit to figure out exactly how deep to make it.

They carried 20 dump truck loads of dirt out of the back yard.

We hope it will be finished by the time you all show up for Shelley and Rob's wedding!

The last picture is the finished pool hole, looking from the fartherst corner toward the house.

Baby name wizard

2007-06-22T13:11:00.000-07:00

Check this amazing thing out, all you baby makers... http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html

Try this

2007-06-22T10:15:00.000-07:00

Google the phrase: Insane devil woman. Then hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button.

The guys at my work think they are funny :)

Check my blog for a bit more... http://shelleylyn.blogspot.com

The Cruise

2007-06-20T23:40:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to get these pics together and finally did. Here is the cruise that Tyler and I and James and Vicki went on May 28th - June 1st. We went to Catalina, California and Ensenada Mexico. We had a great time! It was so nice and relaxing. I highly recommend cruising! And no we didn't even get sick! It was great! Check out my blog for more fun stuff we have been up too. www.grovesfam.blogspot.com
Love you ALL!!
Love Laura

Our Cruise!

2007-06-20T23:37:00.001-07:00

I'm almost there...

2007-06-20T22:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I am so close to finishing school, that I can almost taste it. I am just trying to bide my time until then and bow out gracefully (not working too well, but that's okay).
The good news is that John has successfully passed, "Mountain Phase" in GA and is now actually at Eglin AFB doing, "Jungle Phase." If he passes this last phase successfully, I could get to see him in about two weeks!!! WAHOO!!!!! It's been since April 26th and it'll be nice to be like a real married person again. ;) If you would like to send him a letter, you can send them until June 30th. His current address is:

2LT John Tribe
6th Bn, RTB
RN#352m Company C
6069 Walkers Lane
Camp James E. Rudder
Eglin AFB, FL 32542

I love you all and look forward to hearing from you or seeing you soon. By the way, I am totally jealous that you all are doing fun things and I am stuck in school. Have a great week!
Alyssa

help me choose

2007-06-12T16:31:00.000-07:00

Any suggestions on which of these three photos are best for our engagements? I have others if these all bite... be honest, it's ok to say "Shelley, you should really photoshop those wrinkles out"

Larry & Kerry Trip to Hawaii & Alaska

2007-06-11T10:06:00.001-07:00

June 1, the last day of school, Larry & I got a military hop to Hawaii! Here we are on top of Diamond Head, an extinct volcano overlooking Honolulu, which you see in the background.

This is how we got here!

We went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. there were thousands of fish of all colors, about the size of my hand, and a few larger ones. that was the highlight of the trip!

Removing the pig from the roasting pit at the luau at the Hale Koa. We ate all kinds of strange things, like seaweed salad, fresh tomatoes and raw salmon. The fresh fruits and roasted meats were great. Poi is awful. It's kind of like cold oatmeal that's been blendered up to mush, but not nearly that good!

This picture is the Hale Koa where we stayed for 2 nights. The next 4 shots are all from our balcony. What a view! Larry has wanted to stay here for years, but we could never get a reservation. This time we got cancellations. Hale Koa means "House of the Warrior."

View of Hololulu and the gardens around the Hale Koa

View of the Ocean

Night view of the city is so beautiful

Looking directly down from our balcony. the pool was heated to about 80 degrees. We were so busy, we didn't get to swim here very much!

In Alaska, we took a "26 Glaciers" cruise on this catamaran, the Klondike Express. Because if was a catamaran, it could go faster and we went 135 miles through the deep fjords to see the glaciers. We saw hundreds of sea otters and several bald eagles, a mountain goat and a few moose. Larry loved it!

Glaciers are actually blue!

We got to watch several aerial refuelings en route. We laid on our stomach in the very back of the plane, and looked out the little window in the floor to see our plane "pass gas" to the plane below.

Robert Shepard's Wedding

2007-06-11T09:46:00.001-07:00

Robert Shepard married Kirsten (?) May 11, 2007 in SLC. I thought you might be interested to see what their family looks like now.

He is now serving in Iraq and she is going to Salt Lake Community College to become an elementary teacher.

Lani Shepard, Christi holding her baby Cam, Michael Shepard, and his wife Amber.

Lani is going to Weber State in biology. Christi finished a Master's in English and is now a stay-at-home mom. She also has a darling 4-year0ld girl named Katie and a husband also named Chris. They live in Chicago. Michael will soon finish at Weber State with a teaching certificate in history and math. Amber plays violin and is trying to get iinto medical school.

Christi and Cam. He is about 9 months old in this picture.

Heidi Graduated!

2007-06-10T23:20:00.000-07:00

Heidi graduated from High School and it was a big family party! We all felt as if we had a part in helping her finish. The girls called Wendy and Troy and all the kids and everybody cheered, even on the cell phone! We were the loudest of any of the graduates' families. Graduation was held in the Dee Events Center. There were 450 in her class. Afterwards we went to Chili's to celebrate! Hallelujah!

Nothing in Particular

2007-06-07T07:41:00.001-07:00

Well, I thought that I would try this out-most of you know how we're doing-pretty good in general, but I certainly can't wait until our next baby is born! (The faster the better). Chris has had to take on most of the household stuff-since I can't walk very well. We still go swimming or have something to do with water almost every day-since it's the one thing that I can do, and the boys love it. Hayden just learned how to propel himself around in the ring-floatie this past week, which makes it a lot easier for me to take the kids swimming by myself. -Just in time, too, because the temperature here now is HOT and HUMID. :)

But things are pretty good in general. Chris is a lifesaver, and he keeps us all "afloat". We can't wait for all our company in July, and for Shelley's wedding-Horray! Love you all! --Wendy

Gross

2007-06-06T18:05:00.000-07:00

So, Angela was saying our evening prayer tonight after the kids had gone off to bed. I've had a cold or allergies so my nose is stuffed shut and I'm breathing out of my mouth. Barley jumped up on the bed. Now mind you, I've got my eyes shut for the prayer. The next thing I feel is Barley licking the INSIDE OF MY MOUTH! I gagged and choked and spit all over the place. Angela laughed so hard she almost couldn't finish the prayer. It was never an ambition of mine to be French kissed by a dog, and now I really, truly understand why. GROSS! (Where's the barfing smiley when you need one?)

Music for our wedding

2007-06-05T15:17:00.001-07:00

So I sort of stumbled on this guy who I've booked to do the music at our reception... http://www.robertlinton.com/index.htm

He'll come with a cellist and charge us $150 :) I'm glad! What do you all think?

Great Family Home Evening IDea

2007-06-04T21:02:00.000-07:00

Well hello all! I' ve come up with a great family home evening for you all. Can anyone guess what it is?... You can all write to John in Ranger School. He's doing really well, and I actually have his current address. Keep posted as I will let you know when it changes. It is currently:

2LT John Tribe
5th Ranger Training Battalion
RN #352 Co. C
Camp Frank D. Merrill
Dahlonega, GA 30533

You all are great, and Congrats to Heidi for graduating, Aaron and Becky for celebrating their 2nd anniversary, Troy for getting a new job, and all the rest of you for living through a tough year. Love you all, and thank you for your prayers in our behalf.

Sarah's Saturday Ramblings

2007-06-02T09:53:00.000-07:00

Hi guys, Tiff just got back from D.C. and had a great time. Michael and Andrew went to see their friends in the school Olympics and summer is nearly here! I'm soooooo ready for school to be over. We get out of school on the 14 of June and then almost right away go to girls camp. I'm so excited it's my first year going we're going to have a blast! The only downside to the end of school is finals, but I don't like to think about that. My Saturday is going well except Tiff and Andrew are both sick I think Mom is too. The people down the street set up a huge inflatable bounce palace and I'm not sure if they're trying to sell it or if they're having a party. This summer I might go up to Cedar Point with my mom and some of my friends but thats still undecided. I can honestly say that this has been the best school year since kindergarten.
I love you all,
Sarah

Heidi's graduation

2007-06-01T22:14:00.001-07:00

Heidi graduated on May 31st! So exciting. We called Wendy and Troy so they could be a part of the action too. We cheered the loudest for Heidi. How can you not be excited for her! What a fun occasion! We couldn't be more happy for her!

Check out the link to some of the festivities...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kimhenson/sets/72157594162681724/

loveya!

my very exciting weekend

2007-05-28T10:43:00.000-07:00

Well I have officially decided that I am the coolest person in the world! I am of course totally kidding. I did however get to talk to John for the first time in a month! Yeah, I'm totally set for at least another few weeks. He's doing really well in Ranger school, and has officially passed phase one of four. He said that is is hard mentally but not nearly hard enough physically (typical John). We really appreciate all the prayers and encouragement you have given us. Please keep praying that he'll finish on time, and then I can stay sane. ;) He said that we can send him letters, so when I get his address we can all write him. HMMMM... what a great family home evening. he he he
Aussie is doing very well. All you dog owners, I have two words for you... Cesar Milan (aka The dog Whisperer). I have been making Aussie walk behind me and wait until I go through doors first and he's totally improved. I am a proud parent. Is it sad that he's considered my child? Yes, but deal with it. ;)
I went up to Logan Saturday and hung out with Shelley and Rob and Jasper. Aussie and Jasper absolutely love each other and did not stop playing the entire time we were there. It made for a great and quiet ride home and also a great night's sleep. My thanks go to Jasper and Shelley! ;)
I can only wait in anticipation for when there are four dogs in Mom and Dads house. HA HA HA!!! Can you just imagine: Aussie, Jasper, Shivers, and Barley all trying to play with eighty children running and playing with them? This is going to be good. Are you guys bringing your dogs to the wedding?
Oh well, this is getting really long. I went back to school on Monday. Let me preface this with the fact that I work at a Title 1 school... Things went well, except I found out that one of my students has, wait for it... wait for it... PINWORMS!!!!! Yuck, of all the teachers in the school, she had to be in my clean and germ free classroom? Totally contagious by the way. Life goes on, and I've dealt with it. Only four more weeks of school. Yeah!
I've rambled for long enough. I love you all and look forward to seeing you all!
Alyssa

Biking this evening

2007-05-22T16:36:00.000-07:00

So I got this crazy idea that we should go mountain biking after work/school today. We pulled a seat out of the van and piled eight people and eight bikes into the van and off we went... to sit in traffic. We didn't actually get out of the house until 4pm, just in time for rush hour. I forget how bad it is here as I typically work in the morning from home to avoid the mess, and I either work late enough to avoid the worst of the traffic in the evening or come home early and finish up work after the kids go to bed. I love that aspect of my job. It took us over an hour to get up to the trails, not the usual 25 minutes. Once we got there we had to unload everyone and the bikes. It looks kind of like the clowns at the circus with people piling out and then bicycle after bicycle being pulled out of the van. I take it back, we are more entertaining than the clowns, now I know what we can do for the ward talent night. The trick will be getting the van on the stage... Anyway we got Amy's trail-a-bike out and realized we had left the connector pin on my road bike. the trail-a-bike is a one wheeled bike (ike?) that hooks up to an adult's bike so your young'un can be part of the family ride. We got a screw driver that fit in the hole and tied, then taped it in place. It worked great. I got everyone's road bikes into shape a few weeks ago for the paved bike trails around here. They've been great. I forgot to tune up the mountain bikes. I was sick for the last week, so I'll blame it on a bug-addled brain. Angela made me go to the doctor yesterday. It took them 30 minutes to find my chart, I haven't been in years. I hate going to the doctor just to be told "Yes, you're sick. I can give you an antibiotic, but it's probably a virus" so I generally just wait it out and rest. Apparently the medicine the doctor gave me wasn't the wonder drug after all. Anyway, after going out less than 2 miles we turned around and limped back to the van, playing the circus clown act in reverse. It's really something to see, I should figure out some way to charge admission to everyone who stares mouth-agape while we load up. I bet they'd pay, especially if I sic'ed the kids on them. :) Anyway, we got home in time for Angela to rush off to her concert band. I let the kids tear into any leftovers they wanted and now need to put them to bed. 'Night all.

Girls Sang In Church

2007-05-20T14:20:00.000-07:00

Today is Sunday, May 20. The girls sang with me in church. I was asked to sing a special musical number, so I wanted them to sing with me. It took awhile to persuade them to do it, but eventually it all worked out. Alyssa played the piano, and we sang an arrangement of "I Need Thee Every Hour." Kim, Heidi, Shelley and I sang, and the Spirit was there, and it was great!
Wish you were here,
Love,
Mom

Father & Son's campout

2007-05-20T04:30:00.000-07:00

I took Michael, Andrew and Jared on the father & son's campout on Friday. I started out in a pretty bad mood while packing. Work had been less productive than I'd wanted and that never leaves me happy. Angela straightened me out on the bad mood side before we left and then I had a much better time. I didn't even take a tent, we just pulled the two middle bench seats out of the van and slept there. I didn't want to contend with the drizzle, and our tent is a pain to set up. We took Caleb with us as well. He's a boy from the ward in my 11 year old scout patrol whose parents are on vacation in Europe at the moment. Barley the dog also came. I actually had a good time there. Greg, one of the medical residents in the ward, worked his way through med school in a bike shop, so we talked about bikes for a while. I shot the breeze with the other fathers as well. It was nice. I took the traditional hike with our boys and Caleb in the woods. The boys all grabbed sticks and beat on weeds while building an elaborate fantasy about ninjas. They were having a great time. No one got poison ivy at all this year and we were all grateful.

Barley was so well behaved I took him off of his leash for most of the campout. On the hike he was casting back and forth in front of us at a perfect range for a gun dog. He comes running full tilt when we call him (It looks like he's going to smash into you, but he doesn't) and he'll heel, sit and everything. It's amazing what the right combination of treats, praise, pinch collars and e-collars can do! Barley even went on point a few times. There aren't really any game bird where we went camping, but robins and pigeons were high on his mind. Once he pointed a bumble bee. I had to laugh. He tried to catch it, but luckily it got away. I don't want him thinking that pointing will get him stung in the mouth. We were stiting at the campfire and he locked up on point at something. We all looked around and saw three robins about 20 yards away. I walked up to him, encouraged him, and he eased forward as they moved off. Perfect. When he rushed them they flew away, also perfect. I don't want him to think he can catch game birds when we hunt, just find them and hold them with a point so we can get a decent shot, then fetch them when they fall. I hope to start training him on game birds soon, and this summer we'll leave him with my friend that trains dogs professionally while we are at Shelley's wedding.

Someone brought a projector and showed "Cars" to the kids once it was dark. That seemed to hold their attention for a little while, then the kids drifted off and mostly just adults were talking while the movie played in the background. The boys all ran around playing at lightsaber battles. Jared got whacked in the jaw and wailed loudly until I asked if it was so bad that he needed to lie down. In that instant he was cured and felt fine and jumped back into the fray. There was no bruising the next day so it probably wasn't a life threatening blow. It got a bit chilly out and we crowded around the fire and talked more. It was nice. Around midnight Jared actually asked to go to bed. I think his exact phrase was "I'm tired, my legs hurt, and I WANT TO GO TO BED!" So we did. I got all the boys (and Barley) into the van and we went to sleep. I took the only remaining bench seat, everyone else just made do.
At 3:45am Andrew woke me up and wanted to go start the fire. He told me he had just checked and the ashes were still warm. He got told that he wasn't to make another sound until at least 6:00. So he stayed awake in the front seat and pushed the button on the radio every five minutes to check the time. At 6:00 he got me up, and Andrew, Michael and I got the fire going. Only one other boy was yet awake, so I had to keep the boys from whooping and hollering as they got the fire going. It didn't matter much, though, as at about 6:10 a worker at the campground fired up a blower and walked all around the camp blowing non-existent leaves off of, well, dirt. Everyone else got up soon after that. We ate breakfast and chatted some more. After a few morning sprinkles cleared the bishop launched a few model rockets that drifted into the trees. We then packed up camp, put out the fire and policed the area.

Angela came up and got Andrew, Jared and the dog. Michael, Caleb and I went with the rest of the scouts on a 15 mile bike trip to cover requirements in both the camping merit badge and the cycling merit badge. Caleb had never ridden on a bike with "gears" before. He has a BMX bike that works great for kicking around the neighborhood, but not for going 15 miles. Andrew was kind enough to let him borrow his road bike, and we attempted to give him a "crash" course in both shifting and riding a bike with skinny tires and narrow handle bars. And it did result in a few crashes, but he caught on relatively quickly. There were seven boys and two adult riders, (Greg and I) with one adult standing by at base camp with the vehicle in case of a crash (Lane). We rode around Stony creek lake three times to get in the mileage. Caleb and Michael were the youngest ones there, and they were consistently at the head of the group. I was so pleased with them. Some of the older boys had a really hard time. Especially when we wouldn't let them quit and finish another day. They could have quit, but it would have meant they'd have to do the entire distance again another time. They opted to keep going, but only barely, and one in particular whined the entire time. I hope he outgrows that particular trait while yet in his youth. Greg and I raced down a hill on the last approach to the base camp, and we clocked 32.2 mph over the stretch. I think that's the fastest I've ever gone on a bike. On the way home Michael and Caleb crashed in the back of the van. They didn't even want to stop to eat, and for growing boys, that's saying something. All in all it was a great trip, and I'm really glad Angela brought me to my senses and helped change my mood.

After we dropped off Caleb and came home Michael went off to continue his nap. Angela and I went to the movies last night to see Spiderman 3. I liked the thematic elements in their attempts to acknowledge the foibles of human nature. Angela was annoyed by some of the CGI affects and that it wasn't true enough to the comic books she read as a child. On balance it was an OK show. Now I'm off to prepare a Sunday school lesson. I'm substituting in the CTR 6 class for the next month and am looking forward to it. TTFN.

-Troy

first fender bender

2007-05-18T16:01:00.001-07:00

So, I have officially joined the ranks of rear-ending a person whom you thought was going, but really wasn't. I'm not too happy about it, but at least that's over with. I can now move on...

Lys... sound familiar?

2007-05-18T15:13:00.001-07:00

Alyssa has some experience with this kind of verbal snafu. We were sitting down to family prayer and she started her prayer with "Thank you for calling Flying J, this is Alyssa." This link is from an email Aaron sent.

Jasper Joins the Johnsons

2007-05-18T10:59:00.000-07:00

So last Saturday I was doing some gardening work and Kim called me. She said, "We've found your dog!" She and Lys were at Petsmart in Layton where the Humane Society was doing pet adoptions. I'd previously told her and Lys that I was interested in having an Australian Shepherd.

My immediate response was..."no, I've got to go to Chicago next week... and furthermore, I don't want to potty train a puppy." Then she sent a pix message and the first tugs started. I called Rob and he said that if I loved her, so would he. So I dropped what I was doing (still haven't planted those flowers in the window box) and drove to Layton. Kim and Lys sat with the puppy, warding off interested parties for the hour it took me to drive down.

I walked into Petsmart and saw Kim waving at me. Lys was sitting down, holding the dog formerly known as Tinkerbel on her lap. As soon as I saw her, the tears welled up (I swear, I'm not on my period) and I just knew she was my dog. Weird, eh? I was praying to help me know if she was the right dog for us. Rob and I don't have the bandwidth for a yippy, high-maintenance dog... And she's perfect. Loving, sweet, happy, and fun. She doesn't run away, but she does pee on my carpet. Thanks Lys and Wendy for telling me about Nature's Miracle.

She and Rob fell in love right away. She immediately went to him and licked everything she could get to, they started playing. She loves him and sees him as a big tall jungle gym. She has already learned to sit. One day she won't pee in my house :)

More pics of our sweet puppy.

Dog Training

2007-05-18T10:34:00.000-07:00

Since getting Jasper, I've been looking for innovative dog training techniques. Lys has helped me a lot, but after a week, Jasper still pees on my carpet. So, I've found a new method...

Training Video

I think I may get a refund on my puppy class at Petsmart. This is a good way to go.