Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Bolander's house. Grandma always sets a beautiful table, and I am sad I did not get a picture of it. Valerie was very happy when she found a pink place setting waiting for her at the table.



The boys were very interested in Grandma's tree and what was underneath it. I caught them pinching a few packages after dinner.


To entertain the kids between activities Grandma had Christmas houses for them to build. The boys had a lot of fun with this.


After dinner it was time for the program. Aunt Tracy and Uncle Gavin were spending Christmas at their home in DC, but thanks to modern technology they joined us for the program.



Emily has been working really hard learning how to play the trumpet in band at school, so for our family's part in the program Emily and Ryan played their trumpets together, and the other kids sang along.

For only playing since September I think Emily played really well.
We always end the program by reading the Christmas story from the scriptures.

Shortly after the program finished the doorbell rang. Once again the Mysterious Stranger had left gifts.



Once everyone was dressed in their new pajamas we got in our cars to look at lights and head home to wait for Santa.

Temple Lights

I love the tradition of going to see the lights at Temple Square. Grandpa Bolander also enjoys going, and we were glad he could join us.

This red tree is Grandpa's favorite.

He loves to stand under it and look at all the lights, because it looks like it goes on forever.

When Valerie saw the pink lights she lit up and said, "Oh look at the pink lights! Pink lights are my favorite!"

The kids really liked the nativities, and they loved the lights. It was pretty crowded, and I was a little worried about loosing one of the kids, but it turned out the only one we lost was Grandpa. Thanks goodness for cell phones so we were able to get back together quickly.


After Temple Square we took Trax over to the Gateway Mall, because Grandpa wanted to show the kids the tree they had there. The tree at the Gateway was very cool. The lights were constantly changing, and the kids loved running around the big tree.


Valerie loved riding the train and cried when we got off. So she was very happy when we got to ride it a second time back to the car.



Temple Square is a cold tradition, but it is always a nice way to stop and think of Christ during the holiday season.

Light Up The Night

Halloween is almost here, and that means it is time for Red Butte Garden After Dark. This has become a tradition for our family. This year we were joined again by Kevin, Alisa and Asher, and Grandma and Grandpa Bolander. That makes it even more fun.

Garden After Dark is also a good place to try out our outfits, before the big day. Valerie was happy to put on her princess dress, so I took a few pictures of her smiling in it before we left.

Ryan joined in the Angry Bird fun and dressed up as the King Pig.

The theme this year was "Light Up The Night."

As always the kids had fun with the simple yet creative spots along the path. The first stop was to paint our pumpkins. We only get one pumpkin per family, but Grandma and Grandpa let us have theirs. So the girls painted one, and the boys painted the other.

We stopped at the face painting booth next. They have a couple of people who will paint for you, but they also have places where you can do your own. We opted for doing our own.


After we got the painting out of the way, we headed into the garden for some glow in the dark fun. We colored owl masks with highlighters so they would glow in the black lights.

Then we wished upon a star with a yellow highlighter, and hung our stars in black light lit trees, so our wishes could be seen. Joe wished for an i-phone. He will be wishing for that for a long long time.

We made mushrooms out of white lunch sacks and planted them in the black lit mushroom forest.

In The rose garden we made tissue paper flowers, and spayed them with something that would glow in the black light.

And to end our adventure we walked through the kids favorite part of the trail. The spooky forest. Where everything glowed.



Before we left the garden we had a treat of hot chocolate and caramel apples.

By this time Emily, had decided that fake fingernails would not be part of her costume anymore, and before she could enjoy her treats she had to take them off.

This year I got in on the Angry Bird action too and dressed as the slingshot. Because our whole family dressed up, I wanted a picture, but I didn't think of it until the end of the night. So this is the best that we could do. Sometimes the character shot are the best ones anyway.

We always have a good time together at the Garden.

This year I loved the black lights throughout the path, because that is one of my kids favorite things......Mine too.

The Great Mouse Trap

We have lived in this home for over 5 years now. It is a rental and there are a few things that we have fixed, but there are also a few things that we have just left how they are. One of these items is the floor boards. They are cheap and brown, and in a few small spots they are missing all together. One of these spots is the little space behind the door in the kids bathroom. The space is only about an inch wide, and makes it so you can see the gap between the floor and the bottom of the Sheetrock.

One day near the end of September, I picked Josh up from Kindergarten as usual. When we arrived home, he ran right into the bathroom. When he was finished he came out with a few questions. The conversation went something like this............

Mom you know that hole in the bathroom? The one behind the door?

Yes. What about it?

Well......Can mice be brown?

What!?

I know that mice are gray, but can they be brown?

Did you see a mouse in the hole Josh?

Well I don't know it had little ears and a tail, but it was brown. Can mice be brown?

I quickly went into the bathroom and started looking around. I was horrified. I have never had a mouse in my house before, and I did not need one now. I even told myself for a minute that maybe Josh didn't really see anything and it was just fine. But I knew he saw what he said he did. He had too many details about how it had come out from under the stool we have in front of the sink and ran towards the door. Josh was not sure if it actually went in that hole, or if it just went out into the hall.

To me it didn't really matter where it went, it was in the house. I called Ryan and told him to pick up some traps on his way home, and I went into major fall cleaning mode. I spent the next few days not just cleaning, but scrubbing out everywhere I could. I pulled out the fridge and the oven and cleaned out all of my cupboards. I watched for signs of the mouse. hoping that it had not been in my pantry. Luckily the only place I found droppings was behind my stove. We placed a nice pile of poison there and moved it back.

A few days passed and there was no sign of the mouse. The traps were not working. Than late one night I went into the kitchen and caught a glimpse of our friend over by the stove. By the end of the week we still had not caught it, so I called The landlord to see if they had any suggestions. They sent out a mouse person who placed bate boxes in a few places where we had had sightings of the mouse. I kept telling myself that it had to be only one mouse, because we were not finding droppings everywhere, and also because we had not caught any yet. It there was more than one we would have caught some by now.

Every day I kept checking for droppings in places. Especially my cupboards. Than one day I found some in my hot-pad drawer and my towel drawer. So I went through and cleaned everything again. And instead of putting my clean towels and hot-pads back in those drawers I placed bate boxes in them. As I moved the bate boxes around to the places that I knew the mouse had been, I noticed that one of them had been chewed on. But not enough to make me think we had more than one visitor. It gave me some relief to think that the mouse was eating the poison.

But then I began to wonder, how will we know when the mouse is really gone? Will it come out from hiding before it dies or will we never see it.

A little over three weeks after the first mouse sighting I was beginning to wonder if the mouse was gone. We had not had a sighting for days and the poison was being snacked on. That Saturday morning I had a hair appointment at 8:00am. As I drove home from my appointment I was thinking about what I could do that day to figure out if we still had mice. When I pulled into the garage the kids came running out yelling,

" We caught the mouse! We caught the mouse!"

I was so happy and I asked, "Which trap did we catch it in?"

Their reply was a little surprising to me. " It's not in a trap! We caught it under a bowl in the bathroom."

So I headed to the bathroom, and sure enough, there under one of my best Tupperware bowls was a mouse. Alive.

So I got my camera and took a few pictures while I decided what to do.

The story the kids told me was that they saw the mouse come out from under the fridge and head down the hall towards the bathroom. So they quickly got a bowl and caught it. I could tell that the mouse was suffering from the effects of the poison, and so it must not have been going very fast. But now we had a live mouse under a bowl. Ryan was at work, and I did not want to do anything that would cause me to accidentally have to touch the mouse.

I realized that Ryan's parents would be finishing up with their temple shift at any moment, so I decided to see if Grandpa would come take care of it for us. He was happy to.

He got a cereal box out of our recycle can and slid it under the bowl, keeping the mouse inside the bowl. The kids got excited at this point because when Grandpa did this the mouse started squeaking. When he brought it out I asked him how he was going to kill it. He told me that he was not going to kill it, he was just going to let it go outside.

At this point I remembered that Grandpa Bolander does not kill things. His job at work is to protect threatened and endangered species. Even when it comes to spiders he tries to catch them alive and release them outside. I told him he could not release it anywhere near my house, because then it would just come back in. Even if it was under the influence of the poison and going to die any day, I did not want it back in my house.

Joe did not want the mouse killed either, so he and Grandpa went for a ride and released the mouse back into the wild.
I hope our little visitor enjoyed his last days outside free in the wild.

Having one mouse caught and gone, we would now find out if we just had one visitor, or if we had a problem. Fortunately there have been no more mouse sightings. The droppings have not returned and we have been mouse free for a couple of weeks. I hope to stay that way for a very long time. The rest of my life if possible.

Utah State Fair

Last weekend we headed to the State fair.

It is so fun to see all of the exhibits. Some of them make me wonder what exactly the categories are. Emily and Joe liked this dragon made out of metal pieces. A lot of them looked like they came off of bikes.

Valerie loved this picture of the pink chicken. Because it is pink that means it is hers. Even now as I type this she is telling me "Oh that's my chicken!"

Another favorite part of the fair is the really yummy, heart attack waiting to happen, treats .

The boys enjoyed fried cheese on a stick.

Grandma and Emily shared a plate of fried potatoes.

And we all had ourselves a scone......mine was stuffed with cream cheese, and it was very tasty.

After seeing all the crafts, animals, and other things on display, the kids ended the night with a couple of rides.

It was no surprise that Valerie loved the rides too.

While the kids were waiting in line for one of their rides Grandpa took Valerie on the Merry-go-round over, and over, and over again.

She loved having him for a ride buddy.

The final ride of the night was the big yellow slide. Emily, Joe, and Josh were not quite sure if they would like it, but Grandma asked them to give it a try.

They loved it so much, they declared it "The Best Ride Ever," and wanted to go for a second time.

Valerie talked Grandpa into taking her on it too.

I think the kids would have gone on it over and over again if we would have let them, but it was time to head home.

Valerie was not happy to leave. She wanted to keep sliding on the slide.

As always it was a great time at the fair.

Labor Day

This summer, our bike riding adventures were few and far between. The spring and early summer were cold and wet, and with the high river waters, our favorite bike trail was under water in many places. By the time the water receded, the weather was too hot for the kids.

Ryan and I went on a few rides together, including a 24 mile ride on the Legacy parkway, but the kids opted to stay home.

Now that it is Labor Day the family bike ride was a must do activity. So we loaded our bikes and headed to the trail.

The Family bike ride is not complete without Grandma,

And Grandpa. They add to the fun of the trail.

Valerie still does pretty well in the cart, but she really liked getting out and running around the park.

Ryan and Emily are the top riders of the group, and usually take off at some point and ride a little further than the rest of us. This is usually no big deal, except this year, the trail was still flooded at the stopping point for the rest of us, and I did not like watching my daughter sprint across 12300 south with her bike, because they could not go under the bridge.

She thought it was great though.

It was fun spending Labor Day together doing something we all enjoy.