Watch Out Bob Villa!

I am totally aware of what a dumb thing this is to blog about, but because we worked on it ALL weekend, I figured I would document all of our hard work. We put new floors in our kitchen and living room over 2 years ago. We didn't ever know how to finish them with the quarter round along the edges. I am so proud of Derek for figuring it out and doing without any help. Cooper tried to be a big helper, but would get scared every time the nail gun or saw would make a loud noise. Thanks to Mom and Dad and Richie for letting us use their tools. Now that Derek is so handy with tools, I am going to find all kind of projects for him to work on.

Congrat's Smith Family!

Cindy had her baby on Sunday! When we went to visit the hospital the baby was still nameless. Hopefully they have given her a name by now! She is really cute and looks just like Kenzie to me. Cindy looked great and said the delivery went really well. Boy how our family has grown!

Cooper wanted to take her home with us.

The boys were being so cute while we were there.

Now all we need is to know what the babies name is!

Peach Days

We spent our Saturday in Brigham City at Peach Days. We had a really great time together. Thanks to Grandma Penrod we had front row seats at the parade and thanks to Grandma Smith our bellies were filled with yummy food.

It was a really fun day in Brigham City. We wished Katie and Richie's families could have been up there with us. Hopefully by next year everything will have calmed down and everyone can come!

After the parade, the boys were watching the BYU game so Aubrey, Amy and I decided to go to the"flower show". We had NO idea what we were getting into! We walked in to a class and sat down. After the class was over, they had a huge row of tables full of flowers and they let us all make our own flower arrangement to take home. We had no clue what we were doing, but we had a lot of fun. We decided we need to do this every year so next year Grandma, Cindy, Katie and Mom all need to come with us. I am sure we broke every rule they taught us, but I thought they all turned out cute. I wish I had a picture of Aubrey's and Amy's arrangements. We decided we should all go into business together.

Tomatoes Tomatoes Tomatoes!

Derek and I set off on our first CANNING adventure this weekend. Derek has done such a good job with our garden (and we like to give credit to the "fungi" that mom gave us!) that we have a lot of tomatoes. If anyone would like any, please let us know and we will pick some for you. We thought it would be good if we made some salsa. We have never canned before and we came to the realization that we should have paid more attention when our mom's canned things so we would know what to do. Somehow we figured it out and we have dozen jars of homemade salsa. (Our kitchen still smells like peppers and onions!) We didn't realize just how spicy jalapenos are so it has a bit of a kick, but it is actually pretty good.

Just For Fun!

The World Through Cooper's Eyes

Cooper has found a new hobby of playing with the camera. These are all pictures he has

taken. Some of them are better than others!

Our Trip to Governor Huntsman's Office

We were invited to meet the Governor this week. It was interesting to see his "formal" office, but I bet he gets tired of taking pictures with everyone. I am not sure which I enjoyed more: meeting the Governor or eating at Five Guys when we were done. I did learn that I probably need to grow up and finally invest in a pant suit. It sortof looks like the Sesame Street song... "One of these things is not like the other..." Guess I'll go shopping for a black pant suit so I can fit in with the rest of the campaign team.

Vice President

I just had to write a quick post to say how excited I am for John McCain's VP pick. I really didn't know much about Sarah Palin before today, but the more I learn about her, the more I like her! She stands for all the things that are important to me. I wasn't thrilled to vote for McCain, but this has totally changed my mind. Make sure you all register to vote this year. Go McCain!

These boys are always having fun together!

Tip of the Day...

AVOID EATING SAUSAGE AT IHOP.
I am pretty sure it made me sick today.

Have a happy day everyone!

We've been busy!

Clearly I am not very good at this blogging thing! I have tried to make it cute like everyones blogs, but I just can not get it to work. I have never been very good with technology!

We have been staying very busy lately. Cooper turned 3 a couple of weeks ago and is now a "big boy" who goes potty in the toilet. The whole potty training thing was an interesting experience. I wish there were directions on how to potty train, because I have no clue what I am doing! I guess we figured it out together.

The campaign has been keeping my very very very busy lately. I have sent out about 3000 emails to people to get them to sign up to volunteer. I have had a lot of positive emails, a few mean emails, and a TON of returned mail emails. It is going to be a very busy week getting everything entered in and organized in the computer. We also went to Manti last night to the Sanpete County Fair. We were in the parade and had a lot of fun exploring Manti. It has got to win the prize for the prettiest temple. It was so beautiful down there!

Derek is adjusting to his 10 hour days at work. He is gone for a very long time, but it does make the weekends a lot more fun. He took Cooper golfing this Friday and will probably continue with that tradition until there is snow on the grass. Cooper keeps telling us that if he keeps eating all of his dinner that he will get big and beat Tiger at golf. It is amazing that someone so little could love golf so much. Every night before he goes to bed, he insists on watching the golf channel. I guess it is a good way to get us all to fall asleep! It is so boring, but for some reason Cooper likes it.

We are excited for our September. It seems like there are a lot of fun things going on. We are looking forward to the State Fair. We have gone the past 3 years and have really enjoyed it. We also are planning on going to Peach Days and maybe a few other little trips before the weather gets bad.

YW is going great. I think I am really going to love being the Personal Progress Leader. I can tell you that I LOVE not having to teach on Sundays. I almost feel guilty that I can just enjoy church without having to prepare something. My first activity is in a couple weeks. It has to be about integrity, so if anyone has any fun ideas, please let me know!

I guess that is all for now. Hopefully I will get better about writing more often!

Campaign Days

"YAY JASON!"

Dad and Gabe Henderson

(Derek is usually the driver in parades, but was at the US Open during this parade)Mom and Julie Chaffetz
Marian

At least half of our weekends this summer were spent traveling around the state to be in parades for the campaign. Cooper loved riding in the truck while Derek drove. I would walk and pass out brochures or candy along the parade. We were able to experience so many community celebrations and had a lot of fun along the way. Some of the cities we visited were; Ephraim, Eagle Mountain, Bluffdale, Spanish Fork, Manti, Pleasant Grove, and Orem. Anytime Cooper hears Jason's name he has to say "YAY Jason!" because it is what he would say during all the parades. Jason and Cooper have become good pals. There are few occasions that I see Jason when he doesn't ask where or how Cooper is. It is pretty cool that my child has become such good friends with a future congressman!

Potty Training

Well Cooper has reached a new milestone. He is in the process of being potty-trained! It has been interesting. I have a new respect for all of you who have potty-trained many children. He is doing as good as can be expected, but if anyone has any tips for me, please let me know!


Life has been busy for us the last week or so. Last week was girls camp so I spent a couple days up there. It was actually a lot more fun than I expected. Cooper turned 3 on Sunday and we had a lot of fun having a birthday party with Maddy and Paige. I completely screwed up the party planning by not calling the bowling alley ahead of time so we found out the hard way that they were closed. We still owe Coop a bowling trip. He was sad to say the least. The party ended up being a lot of fun. It was extremely hot outside, but we all had a good time.

Our Tuesday

Right now Cooper and Derek are having a great time together watching Wipeout. They seems to both really enjoy laughing at the misery of the dumb people who sign up to go on that show. Derek actually just got home from an interview with the bishop. He was released from the Elders Quorum presidency and called to serve in the nursery. Cooper is SO excited! It will be a nice break for him to not have a ton of responsiblity and it will be good for him to spend more time with Coop. Thanks to Gov. Huntsman, he is now gone at 6:30 every morning and gets home around 7:00... just in time to eat dinner and go to bed. This new schedule is going to take a while to get used too. I am sure I will love his schedule when Friday rolls around. Yesterday, Cooper, Aubrey and I went to see Wall-E. For anyone who hasn't seen it, DON'T! I am not sure what they were thinking, but I can comfortably say that it is the worst kids movie I have ever seen. Cooper actually did pretty well at the theater, but Aubrey and I were a little bored... especially during the first half. That about sums up our last couple days!

Golf Days

Father and Son Bonding Time!

I wonder what in the world they will do when there is snow on the ground. They LOVE to go golfing together.