One Less Tooth...

R2 finally lost his first tooth!! There was tears and screaming and tight lips so no one could get at the tooth for a while. Then when it was out, life was okay again. Garth is the designated tooth puller since Mom can't handle blood and things were pretty exciting for about 15 minutes.

What were his brother's doing while the tooth was being extracted?????

Bob was waaaayyy excited and wanted to be his helpful (NOT) self as usual. When the tooth was pulled he said "Okay now for the next one!" (Not the most helpful thing to say.) This is a picture of him looking in the mirror at Garth and R2 but that smile was on his face the whole time.

With Spike, it was a different story. Pulling teeth has been a very traumatic thing for him. His roots never fully disolved so it really hurt bad for him to get a tooth pulled. Plus, the last four were pulled by the dentist. The dentist felt so bad about how traumatized he was that he said next time he will sedate Spike to pull any more teeth. So the whole time the tooth was being pulled, he sat with his head between two pillows, almost in tears - poor Spike.

It wouldn't be any fun if life weren't so interesting...

Bob's birthday!

Bob is officially a teen now - 13!! We had a fun party for him with just our family. He chose orange chicken for supper and ice cream sundaes for dessert. After opening presents he spent his time putting together the bionicle and lego he got. What more could a boy ask for!

We kind of got him to smile.

The Mikesell boys...

This is his preferred face for a picture.

Ice cream! Yumm!

UEA

This year for our UEA break we went to Star Valley. Friday we went to Cottonwood Lake and walked around the lake. Then we went to my nephew's (Cameron's) football game. It was a really good game that ended with a huge win - always better.

The kids broke the ice on all the puddles along the way around the lake.

We have wanted to take the kids to the Intermitting Springs while it is intermitting and this was our chance. Bob and Garth went with the scouts just two weeks before we were up there and it was really nice. Then three days before we went, it turned cold and snowed. So it was actually a first for me. I haven't been up there when there is snow like this before. But it was still beautiful - and fun.

It was pretty slick coming down from the mouth of the geyser.

Here is no water coming out.

Now there is lots of water coming out.

Its always fun to see it stop and start.

Remodel

We worked really hard for about a month (it seemed longer) and got three bedrooms downstairs instead of two. After we got all the sheetrock up, we moved the boys into their rooms so we could have some order (i.e. no more sleeping on temporary beds in the living room) for school. We will eventually get them painted and re-carpeted. While everything was out in the garage being stored, I re-stained the bunkbeds and painted an old dresser that Garth used when he was growing up. It was a lot of work but they turned out so nice that I decided it was worth it. So here are some pictures of the rooms so far...

Also a big THANK YOU to all who helped with our project.

This is the room that was added so is the most changed. It is L shaped because it needed a window. This picture is taken from the bottom part of the L by the window looking into the main room.

This picture is taken from the door looking into the main part of the room.

A wall was added to shorten R2's room.

Bob had only minor changes. The closet was cut in half and the adjacent wall re-sheetrocked due to bad wiring.

Here they are waving from their own bedroom door.

The bunkbeds - which are in two separate rooms now, received a lot of sanding and a darker stain.

This is the dresser. I found out that it is actually 50 years old. Its held up remarkably well. It had an X carved in the top and some other scratches that needed to be filled in - otherwise it was in really good shape!

Star Valley

These are pictures from our trip to Star Valley. We went up Swift Creek Canyon (which is my favorite place to go) and got to see the new power plant that is being built. It is so beautiful there!

Mikesell Get-together

Garth insists that his family did not have a "reunion". So whatever it is called (not reunion) most of us got together at Oak City for a few days. We got to go to the sand dunes, play in the creek, drive up the canyon and build a fence. Here are some pictures.

Fishy got to chase a bull. It's like a dream come true for her.

Allred Reunion

Here are pictures from the Allred reunion. It was a crazy fun filled few days with lots of good times and good food.