Halloween Part I

This year's Halloween gave us too many good pictures and stories for just one blog, so over the next week or two (barring a new baby joining us sooner than later) I will try to throw out some little stories and pictures. I hope others will share their stories too. If not, you will have to forgive me if most of the stories end up a little Tyler focused.

2006 was the year of the themes for each of the families. Winning the award for the best overall costumes would go to the Laurence family for their re-creation of the Peter Pan cast. Captain Craig Hook was the scariest, spooking both Morgan and Tyler. Melissa Smead led a troop that also included Wendy Madison, Tinkerbell Mackenzie, Peter Pan Clayton and Tiger Lilly Morgan.

The Kent Besaw family got the award for the most "obviously home made" costumes with their two parent purple dinosaurs (complete with purple tails) that accompanied Tyler's cute Purple Dino/Dragon costume. I wasn't too fond of my Biceratops costume, but I did try to be a good sport. Tyler insisted that all three of us had to go as Purple Dinosaurs and this homemade costume sure beat something goofy like Barney.

The Guth parents didn't show up to the costume ball dressed up, but both their children were adorable. London wins for best props as her Dorothy basket that held Toto was adorable. Little Kennedy was the best Good Witch any party could hope to have. She sure seemed to have a good time taking it all in while sister London loved handing candy out to the trick or treaters.

Of course, it was great having grandma and grandpa Besaw there as well. The kids all love them so much. We sure did miss the Carl Besaw family but knew that they were having a great time as well. We will look forward to seeing some pictures from them soon.

Look for more pictures and/or Halloween stories to be posted in the near future!

Cougar Football & Stair Surfing

Let us first announce that we should be able to do more emailing and blogging because we finally have DSL at home. In fact, right now Jamie and Kent are writing this from their couch while Kent watches the World Series. Isn't modern technology truly amazing.

Kent is enjoying his new job and is getting to feel at home in his new office. Surprisingly, he doesn't even mind the commute all that much as he has listened to a few good books on tape. School is also going fairly well for him, although his current class is a little heavy on theory and not so much on application.

Jamie is anxious to get little Bohonkus' feet out from under her ribs. She is a real trooper, most days, but is a little apprehensive about life with 2 kids while Kent is still in school. Its a case of "ready or not here he comes."

Tyler continues to be a joy to all who spend time around him. He has a few new favorite games, but his favorite toy is still his daddy. Tyler LOVES to play what he calls COUGAR FOOTBALL. Basically, Tyler throws the ball off of his dad's head and then they both scramble after it. It usually results in a lot of tickling, wrestling and laughing. Tyler adores his cougar T-shirt and even though it is short sleeved, we came up with a way for him to wear it year round (as seen in these pictures).

Another favorite game was discovered when Kent and Jamie were cleaning the carpets. The only dry carpeted area was the stairs. Morgan was visiting and she and Tyler figured out how to "Body Surf" down them. They would then climb back up the stairs repeating, "Almost to the Top, Almost to the Top." Then when they reached the top, body surf back down saying "Whee" the whole way down. When Kent was recruited to join the "fun" the result was a couple of pretty nasty carpet burns.

As funny as this game may sound to this point, this is only the tip of the iceberg. That night when Tyler said his prayer (which he no longer accepts help from his parents to do) he said, "Thank you I learned to play almost to the top almost to the top, WHEEEE!" It took a lot of effort for his parents not to laugh too hard in the middle of the prayer.

Another funny story that came from the newfound "stair surfing" skill was when our hometeachers came to visit the next day. Tyler has been slowly coming out of his shell and is not as shy towards adults as he was just a month or so back. When the hometeachers were here he had one cornered and reading stories and playing lightsabers. Then, he pulled him away to make sure that he showed him how he played "almost to the top!"

Tyler is definately a real Ham and we love him for it. I guess its another case of like father like son.

We love you all and look forward to more blogging from us and everyone else.

Life at the Laurences

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been so long. Looks like Adam and Annaka are doing well with their new school schedules and activities. What a great looking party pirate Adam! Sounds like it was a lot of fun!

Things have been insanely busy around here right now with preparations for the primary program, keeping a huge primary staffed and functioning, volunteering at the kid's school and just being a mom and dad. We can relate to Annaka feeling like there is more homework because we're experiencing that as well; especially now that Clayton is learning to read and has that to do each night! But over all life is going really well. Mackenzie and Madison have a piano recital on Monday that we've been preparing for. Is Annaka doing piano still now she's taking violin? Clayton loved finishing out the soccer season and now we're debating on whether Melissa's schedule can accomodate Jr. Jazz Basketball. Between Craig's two jobs and three church callings we are lucky to have time together to do anything other than the necessary home cleaning/maintenance stuff with him, but we are really proud of what he does to provide for our family. Being the Emergency Communications person for the ward he recently got his HAM Radio license so we should set up a time with you California Besaw's to practice!

I know it's taken me forever, but here is the information for our Cousins Christmas Exchange:

Annaka gives to Clayton
Adam gives to Morgan
Mackenzie gives to Kennedy
Madison gives to Tyler
Clayton gives to Adam
Morgan gives to Annaka
Tyler gives to London
Baby Besaw gives to Madison
London gives to Baby Besaw
Kennedy gives to Mackenzie

We discussed a $15 to $20 price range so hopefully that is still okay with everyone. We are looking forward to all being together in November! Hope you are all still doing well!

Love -The Laurences

Greetings from California

I know it has been a while since we added a post to the blog so here is our attempt to try and catch you up on what has been happening with us. We have been very busy with a new school year starting up, activities for the children, and Adam's first big birthday party with all of his friends.

I can't believe Annaka is in 4th grade! Here she is posing for her first day of school:

She is enjoying school even though she has considerably more homework than she had last year. She is also a class representative on her school's student council and will be helping out with several activities throughout the year. Annaka is also on the drill team at her school and started violin this past week. She finished her summer tennis lessons the first week school started back. Since her mom won't ever play tennis with me, I'm hoping Annaka will.

Adam started back to school a couple weeks after Annaka. Because of his late birthday, we decided to have him do one more year of pre-school. He is going 5 days a week so kindergarten shouldn't be much of an adjustment next year. Adam is also playing soccer for his first year. Here are some pictures of him in his soccer uniform and with his team:

Adam turned 5 on September 14th and a week later we had his pirate themed birthday party. Amy made a pretty cool pirate ship birthday cake and Adam got some early use out of this years Halloween costume.

For his party we played games like musical islands (the pirate version of musical chairs), pop the cannonballs (black balloons), and took the kids on a treasure hunt that led to treasure chest pinata. We all had fun, although we felt really awful when we found out two days later that Annaka and Adam had scarlet fever and quite possibly were contagious the day of the party. Thankfully we haven't heard of anyone else getting it, and the candles Adam blew out were not on the cake we served to the guests. Whew! After a couple of days home from school and a round of antibiotics they were back to their regular activities. We hope all of you are well and send our love to each of you.

Learn Wisdom in Thy Youth

About a week ago while Jamie was watching Morgan, she noticed that Tyler and Morgan had cuddled up next to each other on the couch and were reading together. When she noticed that what they were reading was "The Friend, "she quickly grabbed her camera and took these photos.

I think these pictures pretty much tell the story. We sure are glad that we have cousins close, and that the church puts out such great magazines to help us teach our children.

A Summer for Gardening

Sorry it took so long for another post. I was sorta hoping someone else would jump in with a story or two about the start of school, or Adam and Kennedy's birthdays. However, I also understand that we all live busy lives and I am probably in front of a computer more than anyone else. So, a little blog about our garden.

As anyone who has talked to Jamie (or Melissa probably) knows this has been the summer of gardening. We were fortunate to once again be involved in a community garden. The garden is on a barren lot where our neighborhood pools resources to grow tons of everything. It is a great way to teach Tyler a little about working. He is too young to do a lot, but Jamie often takes him over to help pick beans, or pull weeds etc. From the community garden Jamie has been able to can several batches of tomatoes, green beans and salsa. We have also frozen large batches of Corn and Zucchini. We've had a lot of squash with meals and have enjoyed the organic goodness of watermelons and cantaloupes.

Jamie also created quite the garden in our own backyard. We were initially a little fearful as we had to fight off a gopher, but ultimately the garden was successful. Jamie's tomato plants turned out to be imported Amazon Jungle plants that grew to consume all that stood in their path. Her peppers and onions were perfect. We also had hearty watermelons and very sweet cantaloupes from our own backyard.

When Jamie and I were first looking to move in to our home, I remember commenting on the fond memories I had growing up and growing strawberries and peas in our garden patch on Grambling Way. I remember that she said she was NOT a gardener. I think she has more than proven that she is not only a gardener, but a great one! I'm beginning to think that Jamie could have made it as a pioneer!

Perhaps most importantly, I think that Tyler also loves the garden. I have very fond memories of working in the garden as a little boy (hard to believe I am sure because I bet at the time I didn't like having to pull weeds). I am so glad that Jamie has provided that same opportunity for our son. Tyler really is lucky to have such a wonderful mom.

Incidentally, here are a couple of pictures of produce from our garden.

Sunday Temple Tradition

As you know, with work and school and everything else, I really don't get to spend all that much time at home or with Tyler. Jamie also has difficulty finding time in the week to prepare her primary lesson. So, a wonderful tradition has been born over the past few months. On Sunday mornings Tyler and I will take a special visit to the Mount Timpanagos Temple.

The trips started out as short walks looking at the flowers and have grown to a full hour of quality fun. We typically start out by sitting on the benches in front of the entrance gate. This is where Tyler reminds me that when he grows up and is a "big nice man" he will go on a mission and then get married. I'm most proud of his already establishing such worthy goals (now if he could just learn to use the big boy potty!)

After a little bit of time looking at the temple, Tyler will ask to go to the park across the street. The park has a rather large stone ampitheater. Once we get to the ampitheater we will take turns walking down the stone steps to the stage and putting on little plays for each other. Of course, Tyler's plays basically consist of jumping up and down, turning a circle and sometimes a kick in the air. My plays are usually attempts to teach some life lesson while moving around enough that Tyler actually watches. This has turned into one of my favorite times every week. Tyler always claps enthusiastically for my "plays" and is normally quite eager to put on plays of his own.

I feel so grateful to have such a wonderful son. He already has such a special personality and is so anxious to please. I know that our Heavenly Father has blessed our family with one of his most special spirit children, and there are few times I feel this more strongly than on our weekly visits to the "Tempun."

Love you all,
Kent

Fun with Galactic Heroes

The past few weeks we have discovered that the dominant Star Wars obsession gene was in fact inherited by Tyler. Although he has never seen any of the movies, he is constantly playing with his Galactic Heroes and is especially fond of his Clone Troopers (he has a green one and an orange one.) Recently he has begun requiring that one of his Troopers take every nap with him and sleep with him at night. And as soon as he wakes up, the first thing he has to do is to find the Trooper that didn't sleep with him.

The other day I had a good laugh when Tyler got creative. He had been playing with his Galactic Heroes while I was setting up his Thomas the Train tracks. Next thing I know, he was showing me that the Orange Trooper could ride on Lady! Tyler was so excited. He had found that Lady's train body fit almost perfectly under the trooper's legs. We are now working on the script for the next great Lucas Arts film entitled STAR WARS: The Battle for Sodor. Look for it coming soon to a Toddler Theater near you! (For those not as familiar with Thomas the Train, he and his fellow train engines reside on the magical island of Sodor).

Hey, we are officially blogging!

Well Kent, are you so impressed that I'm on the blog and posting! You should be! Granted I should probably be in bed, but I knew I'd never live it down if we waited much longer. Everyone's posts are so great. It made me realize just how technologically challenged our family is though as we still don't have a digital camera to post pictures with. When I mentioned it to her, Mandy was kind enough to remind me that I could post pictures from my camera phone, until I reminded her we don't have one of those yet either! Oh well! Our posts just might not be very colorful is all! I'm tired so I won't say much but we wanted to share Clayton's big news that he scored his first soccer goal at his game on Saturday morning! We feel that is quite an accomplishment being paired up with kids as old as seven (which seems to be most of them). We were so thrilled for him! It was only his third game! The only downer was I didn't get to see it because I was at the Primary Appreciation breakfast :( Too bad! Well, I was put in as president yesterday so it's all official; so if you see or talk to me and it seems like I've lost my mind, I probably have, just help me look for it! Love you all!

Mel

The Guth Family Blog

Well, Kent inspired me to create our own blog since I've been wanting to do one for myself for awhile. Don't worry I will still post on the Besaw Family site, but for now I have my first post up on www.theguthlife.blogspot.com so feel free to check it out.

THE WEEKEND

TGIF, Thank Goodness Its Friday!

Tyler always looks forward to the weekend for at least three main reasons. First, the garbage truck comes on Fridays and Tyler LOVES seeing the garbage truck. Every other Friday the Recycle Truck comes too and those Fridays are better than some holidays as far as he is concerned.

The second reason Tyler loves weekends is because his dad is finally around for more than an hour here and there. We try to always do something fun like go to the park or something on Saturday to make sure it is a special day.

A third reason Tyler loves the weekend is because all the neighbors mow their lawns. Tyler is all boy and loves any machine that makes a lot of noise. He has suprising endurance in walking the rows with his dad "helping" to mow. We know that if all else fails he has a bright future as a Landscape Maintenance Engineer. (Notice how he is sticking his tongue out as he waves...isn't that also just like his dad as a boy!)

Hope everyone enjoys the weekend as much as I know that Tyler will.

Kent

Detour in St. George

On our drive home from Utah we took a pleasant detour in St. George with the Laurences. Craig and Melissa handled all the planning and we had a great time spending a couple more days with them and breaking the trip home into two days. We arrived Friday afternoon and of course the first thing the kids wanted to do was swim.

They took a dip in the pool at the hotel and then we quickly ate dinner in our hotel rooms while we got everyone ready to attend a show at the outdoor Tuacahn theater.


The musical we saw was Peter Pan and all the kids really seemed to enjoy it. Morgan almost jumped out of Melissa's lap when Captain Hook fired a gun and Clayton got fairy dust on him and was worried he might start flying if he thought good thoughts. We all had a wonderful time and lined up with the kids to meet the cast after the show.

Of course our very own Tinkerbell (Annaka) had to get Peter Pan's autograph. Next year, Cinderella is playing so let's start planning now to have the whole family meet in St. George for a fun weekend.

All our love,

Carl, Amy, Annaka, and Adam

Like Father, Like Son

Okay so the other day I was watching a rerun of MASH and Colonel Potter said, "I don't care how poor a man is; if he has family, he's rich." Now, I have no idea if that is a MASH original, but I sure liked what he said. I find that I feel the richest when I see Tyler and feel as though I am looking through a time warp to me as a child.

Here are a couple of quick pictures to help me make my point. These pictures don't do justice to the comedy of the moment, but trust me, it was a riot to watch. A few weeks ago, Tyler was visiting his great Uncle Mike who lives up near Brigham City. Uncle Mike is raising chickens. Tyler quickly realized that the chickens were more afraid of him than he was of them. SO...of course he began chasing them all over the yard. Giggling as he went. I don't think he ever caught one, but he sure wore himself out trying.

Isn't that exactly like something I would have done as a boy? (Or last year when I went to the beach and scared off the Seagulls?)

Here is a quick fatherhood quote, "Every father should remember that one day his son will follow his example instead of his advice." I am seeing this in Tyler already as he often disobeys mom doing things I probably taught him. I hope that in my life this is the case too, because dad definately leaves a great example for me to live up to. (Which doesn't mean his advice isn't good too, but you get the point, right?)

Now to keep this blog successful, if you read this message, leave a brief comment in the comment section below so that I know others are reading. So far Carl is the only family member to post a comment on this blog!

Love you all,

Kent

Welcome to the Blogosphere

Our recent get together has me feeling nostalgic about all the "good ole days" growing up. I feel so sad that circumstances, distance, and a bunch of other stuff has made it so hard to keep up to date on everyone. I often feel like I hear everything second or third hand. When I found this website, I knew it was time for us to enter the blogosphere (don't worry mom it is nothing like the twilight zone).

So, to get it started off, here are a few select (and random) memories from our trip to Goblin Valley and a few photos to enjoy.

I had forgotten what a riot mom is when half asleep. For those of us up late playing Rook we shall not soon forget the way the stream of snores was interrupted with a scolding, "ROD, have you offered them trail mix?" Mom is a good (if paranoid) hostess even in her sleep!

It's true what they say that what goes up must come down. Did anyone else notice how often the kids loved going up...but got a little uneasy about the coming down part. I loved the time that Adam and I climbed up a steep hill on the back of the campground. On the way down, I held my hands out for him to jump. He paused, looked at me, and in a very adult manner asked, "Are you kidding me?" We did eventually convince him that it was safe to jump.

Tyler discovered that the hat we always make him wear outside was a lot cooler once he saw all the other cousins wearing their BYU hats. Of course, he still calls it his "BU" hat!

This was Jamie's first camping experience with the Besaws. On the way home, she commented at least ten times on the fact that she never expected to eat better on a campout than she does at home. Dad, I didn't have the heart to tell her just how good we used to eat on Father's and Son's outings.

Last, but I'm sure not least...I discovered that Carl's family, Melissa's family and my family would have had a rough time making it in the caveman era unless we had separate caves. That many sweaty people in one enclosed cave...YUCK! In the words of Han Solo, "and I thought we smelled bad, on the outside" of the cave.

That's all for now. I hope everyone makes lots of posts on our new blog!

Loves,

Kent