Update

I know I have been slacking on updating this blog...but for good reason. I don't have access to update my blog while at work, and we don't have the internet at our home anymore. I don't even know where to begin on what has been going on. I have been frantically trying to can all the veges from our garden. I have made Grandma's zucchini relish and 2 batches of salsa this weekend and last. I didn't need to buy anything to make it, which was really satisfying. I had everything in my garden. Eric started 1st grade and is loving it. One of my coworker's brother's is a 3rd grade teacher at Eric's school. When he heard who Eric's teacher was he said that she was "a yeller." Eric hasn't been yelled at yet, but it's only been 1 1/2 weeks since school started. Jennifer turned 1 on August 7th. I had her one-year-old pictures taken at Sears on August 1st, and I STILL don't have them. I guess this is why I have always paid more for Kiddie Kandids. I always got my pictures the same day. Here we are, almost a month later, and NO pictures. Apparently they lost them, so they are having to reprint.

So now I will pull a Jordyn, and just post a lot of pictures from our summer. If you have any questions about the pictures, you can ask me.:) I figure people only look at the blogs for the pictures anyways.

Baseball is over...for now.

The kids had their last baseball games 2 Saturday's ago. It rained the entire day. Jennifer loved being in the rain. She kept on trying to lick the rain. Aubrey's game was at 8 am and it poured on us. Eric's game was at 11 am and it poured on us. Aubrey had an outdoor baseball party at 4 pm and it poured on us. I am getting a little rained out! I have to say though, for as much fun as the kids had playing, I am SO GLAD it is finally done. Since they were on different teams we had 2 different practices every week, and 2 different games.

On Thursday it was my work's annual golf tournament at Hill Air Force Base. I originally signed up to play, but ended up having a trial during this week. The trial ended up getting continued last minute. So I ended up volunteering at the tournament instead. It was pretty fun...a lot better than putting in a full day of work!

I was officially elected onto the board of directors for the Utah State Bar Paralegal Division. I have already had one of those exciting Board Meetings. I will find out at the next meeting where within the Bar I will be participating for the year.

The kids went to Hogle Zoo last week with the daycare. Aubrey is obsessed with jaguars for some reason. That is the animal that she is always pretending to be. So when she found out she was going to the zoo, she got really excited that she was finally going to see a jaguar. At the end of the day when I picked the kids up, I asked Aubrey if she saw the jaguar. She started crying and said that it scared her. Aubrey's teacher said that the jaguar was pacing back and forth and roared (hissed?) straight in Aubrey's direction. The jaguar is still her favorite animal, although she now says her favorite animal is a "scary jaguar".

Our little ballerina

Aubrey had her ballet/hip hop/jazz dance recital 2 weeks ago...I am slow at getting the pictures up. She was so much fun to watch! Dad and Diane were able to make it up to the daycare/school to come watch her as well. She was really excited to show them her school. :) The kids are now in summer camp. Every Monday and Wednesday they go on a field trip, then every Tuesday and Thursday they go to swimming lessons. They put Eric with the big kids and he is loving it! All of his friends from growing up at the daycare are still in the Kindergarten class. I thought he would be sad to not be with his friends, but the "big kids" (ages 7-12) have really been good with him. He didn't want to leave them. So last week they went to the Tracey Aviary and a hike up to Ensign Peak (in this rain).

We went to Lagoon on Friday for the Parry Family Reunion. We got out of the park right before it started raining (about 10:30 pm). The kids had so much fun going on rides. I hate the spinning rides, so my Aunt Sharon took them on one. We got drenched on the Rattlesnake Rapids...except for Zac who is the loser that wouldn't go on ANY water rides. Dad took Eric and Aubrey on the "terror ride". Eric came back telling me that there was a scary woman in spider webs. I guess he told Dad after the ride, "I don't want to, but I think I'm going dream about this tonight."

I started up another boot camp exercise class last week. This time I don't need to lose weight, I just want to get more tone. My quad tendonitis is still hurting, and the sports medicine orthopedic told me to strengthen my quads and core in order to prevent the tendonitis from occurring again. It is held right by my house at the amphitheater. It has rained on us every night. At one point it was pouring, and I laid down on my mat and it was just a huge puddle. Then while we were doing some leg exercises, the rain was pounding our faces. I looked around and everyone had their eyes shut...including the 2 trainers. Hmmmm...at least I could cheat on my form since noone was looking.

I have been crazy busy with work recently. I have two tax evasion trials coming up (hold back your excitement). Still working on tons of seizure warrants for the ponzi scheme case. And the big artifact case was finally unsealed with search warrants executed, so now I assume I will have a lot of work tomorrow. I had a suppression hearing on Thursday that started at 1 pm. It was suppose to be over at 4pm, so I didn't call Zac to get the kids. By the time 5pm hit, we had finished calling all of our witnesses, still thinking we would be out any minute. Then defense had some witnesses which we weren't aware of, and the Judge says, "I don't have anywhere to go tonight." Great. So at 7pm we finally finished the suppression hearing, but then he wanted to rule on some outstanding motions. At this point, I finally had to stand up and state I needed to leave. The daycare closed at 6pm. Eek! I didn't have a phone to call them, so I booked it over there. It was a sad sight to see them there. Aubrey was crying because she thought I had forgotten her. :( Days like this I wish I didn't have to work.

Eric's Birthday and Kindergarten Graduation

On Thursday was Eric's kindergarten graduation. They had them sing 6 songs to the parents. During one of the songs, they had the kids "rock out". All of the kids started dancing and Eric started doing the robot. No joke. He even had his arm swing and everything. We have no clue where he had seen that before. It was hilarious! Everyone was laughing. Zac wasn't able to make it, so Eric showed him again when Zac got home.

For Eric's birthday he just wanted to go shooting with Zac and then go see a movie in the theater. Zac filled up all the empty milk jugs that we had been saving full of water for their targets. Eric shot off four rounds and hit 2 of the milk jugs. Zac told me the frustrating thing about going shooting, is Eric rather clean up the shells on the ground rather than shooting the gun...and he blames me for that. After they got back, we went and saw the new Night at the Museum movie. We then headed over to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point right after, and then home for cake and presents.

Dad and Diane decided to sell the Provo home (the home we grew up in) and move into Diane's house in Lehi. So we went there for Sunday dinner yesterday. This morning, Eric was crying. I asked him what was wrong and he said, "When Jesus comes back to life and your Mom comes back to life, she won't know where to go. Nobody will be at her house anymore." He has a very tender personality. I don't have anything else to write...so enjoy the pics. :)

Zac's a graduating man!

He did it! After 8 years of going to college Zac finally received his Bachelor's Degree. Zac's Dad was able to come down from Oregon to come with us. The kids have had a great time with Grandpa Nielson. Eric got his birthday present early from him...a Nintendo DS-I. Eric has been playing it nonstop...except for when Zac "helps him". President Monson spoke at Commencement. He and his wife received honorary doctorate degrees. When Sister Monson received her Degree, President Monson gave her a kiss, it was so tender!

The graduates were suppose to be at commencement an hour early to line up. We ended up getting their 1 1/2 hours early and had to wait in line outside. The kids were trying to get their energy out by running up and down the hill at the McKay Events Center. It was chaos trying to get a seat. We had to save 9 seats as well. I thought we would have some issues, but luckily nobody gave us any trouble. Me and the kids, Zac's Dad, Barb and friend, Dad, Diane and Devin were able to make it to the Graduation. It was great to have the support there for Zac. When I had my graduation, we walked at Commencement. Apparently they don't do that anymore. So after the 2 hour commencement, they excused us and the graduates. What?! We were not planning on attending the convocation, but I guess we need to now. It didn't start for 2 hours. So we ran over and had a celebration dinner Wallaby's. Zac's Aunt and Uncle were able to join us for the dinner. We ran back over for the convocation, and they were way behind. So we had to wait AGAIN outside in line for about 40 minutes before we got back into the McKay Events Center. It was even MORE chaotic! We got our seats, and were finally able to see Zac walk across the stage and get his diploma. Hurray! The kids were SO INCREDIBLY GOOD the entire day! They were quiet, Jennifer took naps during commencement and waiting for the convocation, I could not have asked for them to be better. Except Jennifer was obsessed with trying to grab the woman's hair sitting directly in front of us. I am really proud of Zac for sticking with it and earning his degree. Now hopefully onto Law School in the Fall. :) It will be really nice to have Zac here at home at nights at least for the summer.

I have had good intentions of updating the blog, I have uploaded pictures awhile ago, but never got around to posting. We have had bouts of sickness for the last 2 months. Jennifer has had RSV, then 2 weeks ago got bronchitis. As soon as she was finished with the antibiotics, she got 2 ear infections. Aubrey has an ear infection as well. Last week, I had Bobby call me during the day saying that Eric was crying in pain holding his left side. Nathan and Bobby kept on asking him if he fell, thinking he bruised a rib. Then he started saying that it was on his right side. So I took him to the doctor, and found out that he also had an ear infection. So she gave us antibiotics for that. She didn't think he had appendicitis, but to watch him. So I took him home, he fell asleep. 3 hours later when he woke up, he had a fever of 106. This is also AFTER giving him antibiotics. So I called the on-call doctor (since it is nighttime by now), and they told me to go to the E.R. We ran over, and after several blood tests, x-rays and urine tests, we found out that he has pnemonia in his entire left lung, and half way in his right lung. So they gave us a strong antibiotic to take care of it. THEN on Thursday, the daycare called and said that Aubrey fell on the playground and chipped her front tooth. It is definitely noticeable, we are still undecided if we are going to fix it or not. Since it's her baby teeth and she is going to lose it anyways...kind of a lot of money for something that's not permanent. It doesn't hurt her, it's not loose, and it's not sharp. Some of the pics below are of Aubrey and Jennifer's pictures that I ordered from daycare. Also, Jennifer is OBSESSED with sticking out her tongue.

I had a trial 2 weeks ago, and thought I had a trial next week. So I was in frantic mode getting ready, but on Monday I found out that the defendant decided to plea. Thank goodness! My big case that I worked on (and continuely work on) since January finally got unsealed. All the local news stations have info on it...search under "Mowen" and they articles should pull up. Basically I prepared seizure warrants for over 200 high end vehicles. He even has the original "General Lee" from the Dukes of Hazzard, a vehicle from Prince Charles, etc. Amazing vehicles. I am finally going to go on a tour of all these vehicles next week with the U.S. Marshal's. The defendant, Mowen, was committing a ponzi scheme. It's amazing how these criminals think they will never get caught.

The kids are both in baseball this Spring. Aubrey in T-Ball and Eric in Coach Pitch. Last week was Aubrey's first game. After she hit the ball the first time, she ran straight for 3rd base. We started yelling to run to first so she ran past 2nd then onto 1st. As soon as she hit the plate, she ran back around to 2nd, 3rd and home...passing the other teammates who are still standing on the bases. Apparently she is able to hit amazing homeruns in T-Ball. The second time up to bat, she ran straight for 2nd base this time, then as we were shouting, ran to the pitcher's mound, did a FULL circle around it, then finally ended up at 1st base. BUT she had the time of her life doing it. The games were canceled today because it is pouring rain. Too bad since Grandpa Nielson is still here from Oregon to watch them. I need to make a new resolution to update this more often...it just takes so long to upload pictures. :)