Christmas Tree

There is something that I absolutely love about putting up the Christmas tree. I love the feeling of warmth that it brings to our home. I like to put the tree up right after Thanksgiving and leave it up through New Years. When it's time to take the tree down, I feel sad. It seems like forever before I can put it up again - a whole 11 more months.

Tom's View of Garden Canyon

After we got back from Garden Canyon I was pleasantly surprised with some of the photos Tom took. I was so busy watching the kids and scolding Kaulin that I didn't realize Tom was taking photos and shooting video footage. He made a pretty cool movie of our day. It's too bad he doesn't have more time to spend shooting photos.

Garden Canyon

Two days after Thanksgiving we went hiking up Garden Canyon with family. It was still beautiful. The kids enjoyed being around cousins and being out in the open air. I constantly had to remind Kaulin (very loudly) to wait for us and not run ahead. (especially when the trail went out onto a ledge - Yikes)

Tom's Woodbadge

Tom earned his Scout Woodbadge beads in November. He has worked over the past 18 months to complete certain requirements for his "ticket" items. He enjoyed his week-long Woodbadge training 14 months ago. It was nice to have his parents here to celebrate with him. Scouts after getting your "Eagle" does exist.

The Hike with Pictures

I forgot to add the photos last time. Oops!!

The Hike

Korey and Keilani weren't old enough to go on a hike with the big kids, so Tom and I took them through our neighborhood and hiked through a vacant field. They loved the hike and of course Korey had to be the one leading the way. I had to capture the moment of Korey walking with Tom. Moments like those are priceless.

The Beautiful White Mountains

What a beautiful sight. The White Mountains will always be home to me even if I don't live there anymore.

This is our 3rd year to go up to Sunrise Ski Resort in October and get free season passes for the kids. All the kids except Korey got passes this year. We are able to use them all season. It was cold this weekend. We had strong winds and heavy rain. We waited for a break in the rain to ride the lift to the top of the mountain and back. I wanted to take a camera and take pictures of the breathtaking views on the way down the mountain. However, due to the rain, I decided I had better leave the camera in the car to be safe.

Can't wait to get back up to Sunrise to go skiing this year. The kids are looking forward to it.

Soccer Season in Full Swing

Kameron and Kaulin are on the same soccer team this year. They are doing great. This year they haven't had a fist fight with each other, so I think we are making progress. I think they could both be really good if they learned to work together more. (They haven't realized that by being brothers on the same team, they could actually get more practice in at home.)
Kaulin will run all over the field after the ball and he is not scared to take it away from the other team. Whatever you tell him to do, he will do. Kameron is probably the fastest runner on the team. We just have to keep him motivated to play up to his potential.
It has been fun going to their games. They have a great coach, good team and wonderful team parents.

FAMILY REUNION

We went camping at the Head of the Ditch in Luna, NM over Labor day weekend. This was our traditional Wiltbank reunion that we have every year - same time, same place. The kids enjoyed being with cousins and meeting new cousins. The tire swing was a "hit" for all the kids to enjoy. So were the rockets the kids could launch. Can't wait for next year.

Hiking at South Fork

We spent a few days in Eagar last April for my niece's baptism. While there, we took the kids on a hike at a place near Eagar called South Fork. The kids had fun and it made me miss the White Mountains even more. It sure is beautiful up there. I hope we have many more years of being able to go up there.

Kaulin & Ali's baptism

Kaulin and Ali were baptized back in March of this year. I just found these photos and thought they would be fun to share. It was neat to see both of them get baptized on the same day. They had such a special day. We are proud of them.

Locks of Love

The day Kacie died I took the girls to get their hair cut. For the past year we have been talking about all three of us cutting our hair for locks of love. This day seemed like a perfect day. We couldn't help Kacie, but could help someone else who had cancer. So off we went.
Ali went first and I really didn't think she would go through with it, but she did. Her haircut is so darling.
Keilani went next. We weren't sure if her hair was the minimum 10 inches that is required, but after measuring and remeasuring, it was long enough. So... of went the hair. Her haircut is absolutely darling too. It matches her personality.
I was next. After measuring and remeasuring it was decided that my hair wasn't long enough. So... I have to wait a bit longer to get mine cut.
The girls look cute and love their new haircuts.

Ali

Keilani

IT"S ALL ABOUT THE NAME

Of course it's all about the name. Here is one of the few pictures I have with Marnie Kiester. I was friends with her parents back at BYU-Hawaii. I love to see what a beautiful young woman she is growing in to.

Traditional family photos

It has been a tradition over the 4th of July to take family photos. We used to take pictures with all the cousins, but that has kind of faded and we take our own individual pictures. Of course it is always hard to get everyone looking and smiling. It seems like there is always someone who is grumpy. This year our pictures went pretty well. We just had a hard time getting everyone together. The kids were anxiously waiting for the parade to start.

4th of July

We were back in Eagar for the 4th of July. This has been a tradition for us for the past 14 years. Of course, I have always loved the 4th of July in Eagar. The kids have fun and seem to want to go back year after year.

KACIE - WE MISS YOU!

Kacie.... what can we say.

This past week has been an emotional week at our house. We got home Monday evening and notice that Kacie, our dog, just wasn't herself. She was way too thin and wasn't eating. We took her to the vet on Tuesday where they took x-rays and then did some blood work to rule out Valley Fever. By Thursday we got the definite news that Kacie had cancer and it had progressed to her lungs. She only had about 10% lung use by this time. The kids took the news pretty hard.

Thursday was our big emotional day. All five kids were crying while I was trying to comfort them all at the same time (not very easy when I only have one lap). It was also very emotional for me. My sister said "and you didn't even like the dog". Well, I did like the dog and grew very attached. We could not have asked for a better dog. She was Korey's best friend.

We did not expect her to live as long as she did. She really didn't eat anything all week. She laid around and slept. She was still drinking water though. The last night (Friday night) she couldn't even lay down, it hurt too bad and she couldn't breathe. She spent a good deal of the night by Tom's side of the bed just watching him. The kids got to say goodbye Saturday morning and then he had to take Kacie to the vet to be put to sleep. We couldn't watch her suffer anymore.

KACIE - WE MISS YOU. You were part of the family. We will never forget you.

Learning to Dive

Kaulin did a great job in swim lessons this summer. Actually so did Ali and Kameron.
Kaulin has really learned how to dive well. Of course he has no fear and just goes for it.

Quads are fun

Kameron has found out that riding a quad is quite fun. We were able to visit with cousins in Globe, AZ and he got to ride on their quads.

Pima Air & Space Museum

After school was out, we went to a few place in Tucson with Grandma and Grandpa before they left. They were also places that we had not been to. One place was the Pima Air & Space Museum. We all really enjoyed it. They had several planes for the kids to go in and out of. They also got to go on a space flight similator.

Roosevelt Lake

We spent several days at Lake Roosevelt with my sister and her family. The kids had a ball. Kameron learned to water ski. The rest of us enjoyed riding the tubes and swimming. As you can tell the kids hit a few big waves and went flying. Can't wait to go again next year.

Kaulin and Ali

The kids love to have Tom just "hang" with them.

Kameron

Kameron enjoyed his cub scout cake he helped make for the Blue and Gold Banquet.

Sunrise Ski Resort, January 1, 2008

Our family went on our first ski trip in this past winter. With the help of Tom's parents, we were able to get Kaulin and Ali up on skis. Keilani and Korey were able to go to an onsight childcare. Kameron is now skiing better than Marnie and loving every minute of it. We had an enjoyable time and hope to make it up every year.

Disneyland, March 2008

We were able to go to Disneyland with my sister, her husband and kids. We all had a great time. The kids loved being able to ride on more things now that they are older. We can't wait until we can go back.

I've heard so much about these blogs and finally decided to try it. We do have the same sort of thing on our .mac account, yet Tom is the only one who knows how to do that. So, I've started another.