August Already??!!

Wow, I'm not very good at summer posting, am I? The summer has flown by and we have done a lot of fun things, I'm just not very good at writing about them!

Well, lets see..... last weekend was my 10 year high school reunion. Good ol' class of 1998 from Union High School in Roosevelt, UT. I helped some in the planning and was a little nervous about how it was going to turn out, having never actually been to a high school reunion, but it was really fun. Thanks to everyone who came and supported us. Many of my close friends from high school were able to make it, so it was great to see them and catch up.

Most of the old gang here (minus Amanda who left earlier, and Vanessa who was on her honeymoon) I must say it was kind of weird to be Melanie 'McKee' again, and go to the UBIC (Roosevelt's big annual celebration) and everything, but it was fun to take Tom and the boys and show them a little of my home town fun. I can't believe I haven't even been back to UBIC in ten years!

After the festivities, Tom and I were able to leave the kids with my parents and go on a little mini-vacation all by ourselves. The first one in five years (since Derek was born). It was fun, although I must say it was weird not having the house or kids to worry about for two days. We went up to Midway and stayed in a cute resort place called "Inn on the Creek", it is next to the Homestead Resort. It was very pretty. We pretty much had the place to ourselves for two days, and didn't really even see an employee until the day we checked out.
The first day we did some shopping and went up around Tibble Fork Reservoir. It's so beautiful up there. The second day we went up and rode the Alpine Coaster at Park City Mountain Resort. I'm somewhat of a scaredy-pants when it comes to heights, but it was really fun, and I actually want to go back and try the zip line sometime.

Tom and I before the ride started

Tom and I after the ride began

Let's see, what else.... Tom and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary a couple weeks ago. Eight years!!! I thought I would be a perfect wife by now, but I'm still having to work on that. Poor Tom! :o) He's very patient with me, and I'm very grateful for him.

Derek just finished up his second session of swimming lessons. He loves the water now, and I'm so proud of him for being so brave this year. Last year we could barely pry off his death grip when we were in the pool, and now he will go down the big water slide all by himself.


What else, hmmmm...... I am looking forward to the olympics starting. Tom says its the one time every two years when I will actually sit down and watch a sporting event on TV with him. It's true, I do hate sports on TV, but the Olympics are awesome!!!

Summer "Day-cations"

We've had a couple fun day trips with our kids I thought I would post about. First, Tom's mom invited us down to her firm's summer party, which was geared totally toward kids. They had a blast, especially on the 30 foot high shark slide. I think Derek went down it fifty times. It scared me to pieces (just the very steep and claustrophobic tunnel you have to climb up to get to the top!). And Dallan took a liking to the miniature golfing.


Then we finally took our kids down to the dinosaur park in Ogden. It's really nice! The boys LOVED it and I think we will definitely have to go back and explore more when the weather is a little cooler.

Derek digging up some "real" dinosaur bones.

Poor Dallan doesn't know what's about to get him!

Fun with Family

In the last couple weeks we have been able to see almost all of our siblings and parents at one get-together or another. For Tom that is tricky, because his family is pretty spread out (Holladay, North Dakota, Mississippi and Denver). For me that is also tricky, not because mine are very spread out, but because there are a LOT of us to get together. But it's been really fun for us to see everyone and for our kids to get to know their cousins and aunts and uncles. Here are some fun pictures:

Every summer my grandparents have a reunion at their "picnic area" on their farmland in Roosevelt. It is so much fun and a great place to have family reunions. Here are my cute grandparents, Laurence and Afton Brighton.

Here are my parents looking thrilled at having their picture taken! :o)

Every time our family gets together in the summer months, there is a 4 square tournament that is constantly going on. I'm talking all day long , before and after meals, in 100 degree heat, they just keep playing. I say "they" because I usually don't get into the game, Tom gets into it enough for the both of us!

And just this last weekend we were able to visit with Tom's family. His sisters came in from out of town, along with his Dad and Jan, and we had a nice BBQ on our new patio (OK, we ate inside because it was too hot). Here is a picture of Tom with his sisters: Amanda, Emily, and Jenny. If Tom had to be stuck in a family with all sisters, he couldn't have had better ones. They are great!

And here is a picture of the cousins, including our new cousin Katie, who was adopted into our family by Jenny and Richard recently. It was fun to finally meet her! We had them look into the sun for the picture, so there are a lot of closed eyes.

Back from Camp

So I survived my first girl's camp as a Young Women's counselor. I wouldn't exactly call it "camp", more like "Girl's Vacation Week" since we stayed in a really nice lodge with showers, ovens, TV's, etc..... but it was fun and I really liked getting to know the girls a little better. We have a great ward and some exceptional youth. I also love my fellow young women leaders. The camp leader did a great job and had many activities that focused on building self-esteem, giving service, building testimony, etc.... messages that were good for myself as well. It was super-cold and we spent a lot of time in the lodge, and by the fourth day there was a little too much estrogen in one place, but it was still a success, I thought.


Tom did a great job holding down the fort, of course. He and the boys had a fun week together, and he proved once again that he can do everything better than me, including being a housewife. :o)


Here are some fun pictures of the boys, since I haven't posted for a while....

Dallan as super flasher cowboy

Derek riding his bike with cape, boxing gloves and preschool graduation cap!

Derek enjoying the smores we made on our new patio fire pit (still waiting for the patio).

And here are some videos of Dallan singing. We love his cute little voice so we make him sing for the camera.

Ode to the Teacher

Yesterday morning, the principal at Tom's high school asked Tom if he was going to the school awards assembly that night. Tom wasn't planning on it, but the principal asked him to come, dressed up, and to bring me. I was very excited and very proud when Tom was called up on stage and awarded the Larry Findley Leadership Award! It is a brand new award that the school awards to an all-around, outstanding teacher who displays excellence in all areas: leadership, going the extra mile, being innovative, caring about student learning, being involved in extra-curricular activities, and all around being an outstanding teacher. (I wish I could remember all of the areas that the principal listed) There was even a nice cash prize from an anonymous donor. Way to go Tom!!!!!

I get several compliments a week from students who have been in Tom's classes, and from their parents. When I think of Lincoln's quote "whatever you are, be a good one" I think of Tom. We love you!

Free Color by Numbers, Anyone?

Derek LOVES to do color by number pictures! It has been a lifesaver at church and during long car rides. Anyway, I couldn't find very many quality color by number pictures online or in books, so I decided to start drawing my own. Then I got this idea that I could scan them and make them into a pdf booklet and sell the "email-able" documents on Ebay for like $1.50 for 10 pages, and I sold a few in the first couple days.....that is until Ebay sent me a not-so-nice email about how I was violating their policies. Apparently you can't sell things that can be delivered online or through email. Ooops! So if anyone thinks their kids would like these, you can download them and print them off here (they are mostly boy subjects, but could work for girls too):

www.portraitsbymel.net/colorbynumberA.pdf

I'm sure this is not the end of my color by numbers, so I'll post future ones as well if anyone wants them.

Drawing!

So I spent all winter trying to coerce my kids into coloring or drawing or doing anything that didn't include TV or computer (or being out in the freezing cold). And just this last month they decided that they now love to draw. Well, Dallan loves to draw, and Derek loves to do color-by-number pictures and sometimes he draws stories kind of comic-book style. Very cute! Anyway, I must say, they are pretty good! Dallan has used a couple reams of paper drawing our family members over and over, and although I hope my likeness is not quite that accurate, I think that he is amazing for a two year old! :o)

Dad

Mom, (apparently I have horns!! he, he)

Blog Makeover

So I finally sat down and figured out how to give my blog a nice makeover. Tom says it looks a little "girly", but I guess I need something girly in this family, right??

Real Portraits

So I broke down and finally got my kids professional portraits, and I must say they turned out very cute.
And I thought I would post a couple pictures from my sister's wedding (Alex). It was beautiful. Too bad this is the best picture we got of Alex, but we did get a cute one of some of the grandkids. Congratulations to Alex, her new husband, Aron, and their little family.


From left to right: Kayden (Toby & Kristi's), Derek, Gracie (Dustin & Rachel's), Dallan, and Gehrig (Dustin & Rachel's).

Family Frolf

Now that the weather has warmed a little, we have once again taken up our favorite summer pastime of frisbee golfing at the local course. OK, this is really Tom's favorite (because he is stinkin' AMAZING at it and places at all the area tournaments!), but he lets us come along and Derek and I are learning together. Dallan gets to ride in the stroller and play at the park when we are done.

If you are really savvy with a frisbee (like my Tom), you actually call it a "disc" and thus "disc golf", and carry a specialized bag full of expensive, varying weight "discs" including distance drivers, putters, etc... Yes, you would think that this being like and actual SPORT I would normally run and hide, but I actually quite enjoy it. Last summer I even bought a basket to practice putting in our backyard!! Roller blades here I come!!! OK, so I'm still scared of all sports that require balance. Oh, and balls. And teams. He he. But I am seriously thinking about trying to play in our famous family four-square tournment this year.

Derek celebrating after he makes a fairly long put!

Tom looking very serious about the game.
We thought this picture was awesome becuase of the way the sun is shining on Derek's frisbee.
Dallan the happy rider.
If any of you out there want to try it out sometime, come on up, we would love to take you! :o)

I'm old!!

OK, so I'm not that good at frequent blogging. Big surprise huh? I hope no one was waiting on the Christmas pictures. I did get them into scrapbooks in record time but forgot about the blog. I'll try and post a couple below.

So I survived my 28th birthday. Can't believe how old I am! I remember my own mother when she was my age. Speaking of my mom, she and my little brother Brock were nice enough to come up and watch my kids for a whole day while I went shopping and went to a chick flick with Tom. It was so nice! THANKS MOM AND BROCK!


Derek has started going to preschool and loves it. He is such a social kid and wants to play with friends all day every day. Dallan is getting to be a little "smarty" like his brother and has already mastered the fine art of clicking the mouse to play his favorite PBS and Nick Jr. games. I have to pull him off the computer several times a day.

Tom is back coaching track and is pretty busy at his other part time job as well (Academic Mentor for Achieve Online School). We don't see him much in the spring but appreciate how hard he works for us. It's nice that we have the summer together to make up for it.

I finally finished my brother's art website . It's not the most professional site ever, but I'm proud of it and he got it for free. :o) I also finished the 6th season of SMALLVILLE (great incentive to ride my elliptical each morning). I am now back to watching LOST and THE OFFICE. I haven't worked out so consistently.....well, ever! Thank goodness for good TV on DVD!

Dallan in his new gear

Derek as the cowboy Batman

Tom's step-brothers and their families

Sledding fun

Tom actually sat on the toboggan backwards and slid down the hill in front of the boys to get the first video, until he took a tumble! And check out Derek's "super trick" as well. I will post Christmas pictures soon.

Yes, I am Cory McKee's sister....

Just wanted to give a shout out to my older brother for his awesome drawing that the Jazz hired him to draw. You may have seen it on TV while watching a recent Jazz game, as they are giving away prints of the drawing to people who donate a certain amount of money to charity. Anyways, I think it's awesome so I wanted to show it off. Go Cory!! (Although I'm sure he never reads my blog. :o) I'm working on a website for his artwork (as well as one for mine) which should be up and running shortly.

Why don't we just eat the Candy??

I attempted making my first gingerbread houses with my kids this last week. For the most part I would say it was a success, although I did cheat and only used graham crackers and a hot glue gun. Dallan was a little disappointed and put WAY more candy in his mouth than on the house. Derek did a little better, but soon got bored of the decorating part, which he left to me, and just started eating as well. Derek's decorating ideas were along these lines "hey mom, lets put this candy inside the chimney and it can be Santa, and this one will be his uncle, and this is his other uncle, etc...... " until the chimney is stuffed full of Santa's uncles, which will be SOO SOO funny because now Santa can't move!" and "this green one on top of the chimney is me looking down at all the people stuck in the chimney and laughing" His other big idea was to fill the entire house full of blue M&M's so that it would be a flood like we had when our dishwasher broke. Then when Santa got un-stuck from the chimney he would fall in the flooded house and "that would be SOOO SOOO funny!" Little boys are very interesting!! :o)

These are a few of my favorite things.....

I'm not trying to copy Oprah OR Julie Andrews, but I just thought I would share a couple of my new favorite things this holiday season! Just for fun.....

Favorite New Recipe:
Pumpkin CakeMix Cookies - SO EASY! Just take one 15 oz. can of pumpkin and combine it with one cake mix (any flavor - I've heard spice, carrot, yellow and chocolate are all good) and mix in some chocolate chips and you have instant cookies. Except you do have to bake them. :o) 15-17 min. at 375 degrees. No eggs, no oil, just the cake mix, pumpkin and chocolate chips.

Favorite New Piano Sheet Music:
Bring a Torch Jeanette Isabella by Sally Deford (piano only)
As Shepherds Kept Their Lonely Vigil by Sally Deford (beautiful SATB arrangement)

Favorite New Christmas Songs:
What Child is This - Martina McBride
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Mercy Me (Not your traditional Christmas, but I still love it)
O Come All Ye Faithful - Josh Groban and the Tabernacle Choir (I wish there was a little more orchestra and a little less organ, but what a great singing combo at the end!)

Thanksgiving

I feel like I have passed on to a new level of homemaking now that I have made and survived my own Thanksgiving dinner without any disasters. We ate at home this year, and invited Tom's mom and his grandfather to join us. It was very nice.
Dallan the chatterbox was the biggest conversationalist during dinner and kept us all giggling at his silly comments. The boys were a lot of fun and excited to make decorations and watch the parade in the morning. We had Tom's mom (Liz) take some family pictures of us while she was here, but the boys didn't cooperate very well. Still, they turned out pretty well...

Here are some more good pics, showcasing Derek's favorite "space stare", and Tom's fake natural smile. :o)

Halloween recap

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Derek wanted to be the same thing he was last year- a koala bear (hurray for me!) , and Dallan was a cute little cow. Together they represented the cooperation of wildlife from separate continents. Yeah....... something like that. ANYWAY, Tom and I had just as much taking them around the neighborhood, and eating all their chocolate candy bars since they much prefer the suckers and laffy taffy.

Right before Halloween I was able to take a trip to Disneyland with my parents and some siblings. It was so much fun! I love Disneyland! And I really want to take my boys when they get a little older. As they were a little too young right now, they sat this one out and stayed home with Tom (who is not a big fan of Disneyland).

Turns out that Tom is a better homemaker than I am! Maybe I should go back to college! :o) I returned from my trip to find a clean house, beautifully carved pumpkins on the porch and both boys smelling like roses (or maybe baby lotion).

Under New Management

Tom has officially handed over the keys to upkeeping our blog, so I will be posting from now on. For those of you out there who have ever had email correspondence with me, you will know that writing regularly is not one of my strong points, but I at least hope to post a few good pictures every couple weeks. :o)

Christmas Time in Brigham City

See the following for the Davidson family Christmas Card.

http://www.behsscience.com/christmas.pdf


Merry Christmas,

The fam