Pack Meeting and Arrow of Light

We now have 2 boys in Cub Scouts, so every month Pack Meeting is a big deal. (And since scouts is on my list of duties as 1st Counselor, I get to attend the 'blessed' event and kill 2 birds with one stone right?)
On December 10th, Brady, received his Arrow of Light. When we first got into scouts 3 years ago, I didn't know what a big deal it was. But after having a Webelo, I see how much work goes into it. Because of the church run scout program, our 10 year olds have only one year to get their Arrow of Light, where as in other programs Webelo's have 2 years. So THANK GOODNESS for great/wonderful/super/dedicated leaders! I know they always give a mothers pin when an advancement is made, but I wouldn't know what to do if I didn't have great leaders sending notes home saying: "Brady needs to have such and such done by next week." Angie Mazeika, is our bishops wife and according to her hubby is quite the drill sargent with the boys. (But you almost have to be stern with young boys right?) She does an amazing job and sometimes will hold multiple den meetings per week so that the boys get through the program.

Also a funny little story from that night, the theme for pack meeting was 'Hero's', so at the beginning of Pack Meeting, Bro. Abel asks the boys who their hero's are. Zack raised his hand and said, "My dad", (Nate's chest puffed out a little on that comment.) Other boys also named some hero's of their own. Then Zack raised his hand again, but this time he said, "A librarian". He crackes me up sometimes...this has to do with his love for reading Harry Potter books lately. I turned to Nate and said, "Where does he come up with these things?"


Todd Asbell was Akaela, who came to give the Arrow of Light ceremony...quite entertaining.

Sis. Mazeika had the boys do some good skits that night. This was my favorite.

Brady and Sis. Mazeika, we sure are going to miss her. Hopefully she stays in Webelo's until Zack gets there.

Sara, Brady and Nate.

Brady receives his Arrow of Light.

Brady pinning on the Mother's Pin for his Arrow of Light.

Mitchell, Brady and David all received their award that night.

Zack receiving an award from his Den Leader Sis. Olesen.

Zack and all the Wolves.

First Snow

Well the first snow has come and gone, but my kids were definately ready to go out and play. I find it 'amusing' when you spend a half hour of bundling them up and then they last 5 minutes out in the cold. But my older kids are troopers and get ready by themselves for the most part. Brady didn't stick around our house, but went to the 'Bowl' which is at the bottom of the hill and where the majority of the neighborhood goes to sled. Thank goodness Zack and Rachel stayed around to help Jace and Hannah out on the sleds.


Zack going down one of our mini hills.

Jace actually lasted longer outside than I thought.

Mmmmmm...what's that salty taste? Yuck!

Hannah is so pampered. The kids would carry her up the hill, put her on the sled and then push her down the hill. Now that's how I would like to go sledding.

Rachel, usually known for her 'fashion awareness' really didn't care about her attire...she just wanted to get outside. This get-up totally cracked me up...I'm just sad I didn't get a full body shot. It was quite attractive.

10th Ward Christmas Breakfast

This year we were finally able to attend our annual ward Christmas Breakfast. The past 2 years we havn't been able to attend because of family parties and baptisms happening at the same time.

It was a lot of fun to enjoy a meal with our ward family, but I'm sad at the changes that have been made in the last couple of years that we didn't know about.

First of all the breakfast started at 10:30...seriously, does anyone who is on the Activities Committee have kids? Of course my kids were up at 7:00 on a Saturday to watch cartoons, and had already eaten breakfast. So I guess it was more of a brunch for our family.

But second, and most sadly, is that they didn't have Santa there. I remember growing up and always having Santa at our ward Christmas functions. I know Christmas shouldn't revolve around Santa, but it is kind of a given to have him there I thought. Oh well, now I guess we get to go and wait in a long line somewhere so that my kids will have an opportunity to have their picture taken with Santa this year.

But I won't complain publically because then someone will say, "Then if you think you can do a better job...go ahead." Sorry that is one calling I really don't miss! I like attending ward functions and actually being able to eat and socialize!


Since I was having a great time socializing at the ward breakfast, I forgot to pull out the camera. But I did get one cute shot of Kaylee Allred, Suzy Lane and Rachel...they are good little friends.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

This year since my non-pre-lit artificial tree has offically been taken over by the scouts for their annual toy drive (the joys of being married to a scout master ;-). I was quite happy that I was 'forced' to buy a pre-lit tree for our downstairs and dedicate it as the Holmes' Kids' Christmas Tree. My kids each have an ornament for every Christmas that they've had, and they love to look and remember what the ornament means to them. Whether it was given to them from a special friend or teacher, or maybe something special they made in school it means something special to them. I'm trying to convince Nate to let me buy 2 more trees and let the kids put them up in their rooms and create a themed tree to decorate. But I need to ease that idea in more slowly I guess.

They love having their 'own' tree and tell their friends, that they decorated it all by themselves. Which is true. That just means I get to decorate our main Christmas tree all by myself. Which makes me a happy mom.

This is our cat Tabby's first Christmas, and she has found a new place to cat nap under our main tree. That is until I made a new tree skirt. I wondered where she was hiding all the time, when I finally found her snoozing away under the tree.



Brady was able to put most of his ornaments higher up on the tree.

Rachel said this is her favorite ornament, since it is a 'snowman picture' of her hand.

Jace covered the lower part of the tree...I love how he clumps his 4 ornaments on one branch.

Zack putting on the finishing touches, he was good about spreading the ornaments around to balance out the tree.

Little Hannah has only 1 ornament to hang.

Tabby's favorite place to cat nap.

The new tree skirt I made this year....she's not too fond of the silky type material, now she'll have to find a new napping place.

Thanksgiving 2009

We had a great Thanksgiving this year with lots of yummy food and family around. We held the feast here at our home with my parents and brother Jeffery, my sister Emma and her family, and Nate's mom and nephew Cassidy. Of course my kids loved being able to have their cousins here to pal around with.

It was kind of funny though when I was planning out the menu for Thanksgiving dinner, I was getting more excited for the leftovers more than the actual dinner. My favorite every year is a home made Granny Roll, with turkey, cream cheese, and a special Cranberry Relish that my mom makes every year.

Speaking of Granny Rolls...I had a few people ask me for the recipe this year. But as you may or may not know it's a family secret. I was lucky enough to spend the day before Thanksgiving with my Granny when I was first married, and helped her prepare dozens and dozens and dozens of rolls. Sadly, she's not with us anymore, but her secret is safe with me. Aunt Betty keeps asking me to give her the recipe, as do many other family members. But my mom had a great idea, next year on Granny's birthday which is October 26th, I'm going to hold a Moulton Family Enrichment and invite all my cousins and aunts over to learn how to make Granny rolls and take an 'oath' never to share the recipe. Then we can all sit around and tell fun memories that we have of Granny and Pa. They were wonderful people and I know we all miss them deeply, especially around this time of year.

On a lighter note...I had to chuckle to myself as I read everyone's posts on their Thanksgiving. As soon as dinner was over...out came the ads and the planning for the big shopping day began. That's exactly what we did too.

Sadly I didn't get any pictures of adults, but just all the cute kiddos!


Hannah found the joy of putting black olives on her fingers. I remember Granny always saying, "Only 3 olives." (She grew up in the Great Depression and hated to see anything wasted.) But since we had only 9 kids there (that is a small amount for my family), we let her put olives on all 10 fingers...she loved it!

Cute little Bella...too bad she also found Tabby's litter box...twice!

Mitchell and Tanner Evans...quite the handful of boys!

My handsome boy Brady.

Taylor Evans, she is such a good 'big sis' to Rachel.

Jace...I actually don't think he ate anything on his plate, but came back a few hours later for Pumpkin Pie...his favorite.

Rachel...you'll notice the green onions on her plate. There is a funny story about these onions (which are covered on the end with cream cheese and then rolled in shredded cheddar cheese, a Grandma Broadhead original). Last year was the first year she tried the green onions...and she kept eating and eating and eating them. She probably had about 12...which is a lot, we were amazed that she could eat so many. Even I only like a few. She had quite the sour stomach that night from all the raw onion. But she was sure excited to see them again, she just limited herself to couple this year.

Zack...seriously what kid loads his plate up first with veges? He's one in a million I tell ya!

Jace and Mitchell...best of buddies.

Oh What Do We Do In The Autumn Time?

You know the primary song..."So what do you do in the summer time, when all the world is green?" Well for us we enjoy a lot of shade. We have a ton of trees in our yard, and so when it is 100+ Degrees outside, we don't feel the heat as bad. But even though we enjoy our shade in the summer...we sure pay for it in the autumn. Why? Leaves...leaves...leaves. We try and keep up with raking here and there...and now with Brady being able to mow the lawn, he can mulch quite a bit for our garden on Saturdays. But it usually takes an entire Saturday, from sun up till sun down, to get all of the leaves taken care of. And that's only if those stubborn willows will finally drop their leaves.

I remember when we lived in Saratoga Springs and we had only 2 trees in our front and back yard combined. Brady came in one day and said, "Mom, when are we going to have enough leaves for me to jump in?" I knew inside, that if we stayed in that house he would probably never be able to fully enjoy jumping into a huge pile of leaves.

So moving into this house we quickly remidied that. The kids love spending time in our yard and every year they have a blast raking up piles of leaves and jumping or falling into them, and piling them up at the end of the slide to crash into, or even jumping on the tramp with the leaves that are trapped by the safety net. Plus they are good helps when it comes to getting the leaves taken care of. This year we tried a new system of raking the leaves onto big tarps and then pulling the tarps over to the garden area, where we had the Chipper/Shredder aimed directly towards the garden. Then we mulched the leaves and into the garden they went.

Even though I may complain about all the work, it really is worth all the enjoyment we get out of our back yard. We hold a lot of parties and BBQ's back there. So what do we do in the Autumn time? You can bet we are raking up leaves.



Jace and Zack playing in a pile of leaves. (I'm in the background checking out my raspberry plants I planted this year...hopefully we'll get a lot more next year.)

Jace wasn't too sure of falling backwards into the leaves.

Zack falling into the leaves.

Hannah started to figure out just how fun the leaves were.

Brady 'erupting' from under the leaves.

We would bury Brady in the leaves and then tell Hannah to jump in them...then he would quickly jump out to get her. She laughed every time, and never seemed to get tired of it.

Nate doing what he does best...work ;-)

Grand Canyon Rim to Rim

The first weekend of November I was able to start the first of many adventure trips with my friends. Michelle Rosenvall, who is in my ward decided to get a group of ladies together to hike/run the Grand Canyon from the North Rim to the South Rim, just 24 miles. It's a 5 mile hike down (which we ran some of the way), 9 miles across the bottom, (this is where we ran the majority of the time), and then 10 miles up the South Rim. (This was actually her 7th time doing it...so she knew what we were in for...but had us very well prepared.) The weather can be tricky this time of year, because when it snows at the north rim, they close the gates. But we were lucky, no snow, just a mere 20 Degrees when we started out. But at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and when we were heading up the south rim...it was 80 Degrees. So you have to be prepared clothing and food wise. There are signs all over that say, "Do NOT attempt to cross the Grand Canyon in a 24 hour period....or Do NOT attempt to hike from the South Rim to Phantom Ranch in a 24 hour period." There was a lady that did the same hike a few years ago and died of dehydration. The reason why they don't want you to attempt this in one day, is because the rangers have to rescue about 250 people a year. And the majority of people try to hike it in July when it is 120 Degrees at the bottom of the canyon. Our goal was to complete it in under 10 hours which included an extended rest, 45 minutes, at Phantom Ranch. The first group finished in 9 hours. Amy Clark and I finished in 9 1/2 hours. And the rest of the group, which didn't run at all finished in about 12 hours. (Amy and I stuck together because the run down the north rim, really stared to make our knees ache.) It was fun though and I'm glad I did it, and hopefully will do it again. The hardest part was definately the last 2 miles. On the south rim there is what is called the Devils Staircase. At let me just say this....it is the Devils Staircase. It is switch-back after switch-back after switch-back. And log-step after log-step after log-step. But we made it and saw some beautiful scenery along the way, along with some deer and very friendly mountain goats.

When people would ask where we had come from and we told them the north rim at 6am...they were astounded. (But when we started out, we ran into a handful of runners who had started at the south rim and were almost to the north rim and then they were headed back to the south rim...that day...almost 50 miles. Now that's crazy!)

Our plan as the Ladies No. 1 Adventure Agency is to have an annual trip every year. So for next year, we've been thinking about hiking Kings Peak, or maybe a Narrows Hike, or possibly a 100+ bike ride in the St. George area. We'll see what we can come up with!


All bundled up and ready to head out.

Going down the North Rim...it was so beautiful, lots of fall colors to look at.

Amy Clark and I on the trail....our poles did help our knees a lot.

Taking a break at Phantom Ranch.

Annie, Michelle, Amy and Me....most of the 10th ward gals. (Martina and Angie were a few hours behind us.)

This guy is the manager of Phantom Ranch. He was really interesting to talk to. He lives down there full time, but hikes out at least once or twice a month...and yes he does hike out 10 miles and then back 10 miles.

Amy and I on the bridge over the Colorado River. Right before the descend up the South Rim.

Here is one of the many signs that say, "Do Not attempt this in one day." Haha...we showed them!

Amy and I made it in 9 1/2 hours! Yippee!

All of us gals looking at where we were the day before.

Pretty view.


I highlighted our trek from the North Rim, to where we started up the Devil's Staircase on the South Rim. The circle in the middle is Phantom Ranch, where we were able to rest up for the last 10 miles.

Brady and Zack's Piano Recital

Also on Halloween we had a piano recital. Zack played Chim-Chim Cher-ee from Mary Poppins and Brady played Hedwig's Theme from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. They are in their 2nd year of piano lessons, and really enjoy it. I hardly have to remind them to practice...they just know that it is something they do everyday. I just wish they would play more appropriate songs for the season. I rolled my eyes every time I heard Jolly Old St. Nick this summer. And now they are both playing the Harry Potter song constantly, Zack thinks it's cool that he is now playing Brady's recital song. (And like I said we've opened a can of worms with Harry Potter and Zack.) Their teacher is BriAnna Jenkins, who lives just down the hill from us and is in our ward. She is great and the boys have improved a lot in just the couple of months they've taken lessons from her.

A funny little story about piano lessons. A few weeks ago Bro. Friel in our ward was giving a talk in sacrament meeting and mentioned that he wishes he was more musically inclined and that his mom wasted a lot of money on piano lessons for him while growing up. Brady leaned over and said, "See mom, you're just wasting a lot of money on our piano lessons." I just smiled and said, "Nope it's totally worth it to me." (Why did he actually have to be listening at that point in sacrament meeting anyway?) He really does love it, and likes it when his friends are around and he can play something for them that they'll recognize. He may only have one more year of piano lessons after this, but we'll see what he wants to play when he gets to Jr. High. Zack on the other hand is dead set on playing the drums...just like I did...so I keep telling him, if he wants to play the drums, he's got to have a good piano background so that he'll be an awesome drummer.