No birthdays. Just an update!!!

Caroline on her new bike!
Braeden and Megan at Sadies

Katelynn's 14th birthday

Collin before his band concert.

I think they're tired after a day of sledding!

Collin

I love the look on tom's face!!!

Dad loves rubbing it in that he's a Cougar Fan!

The leaning snowman with Tom and Caroline

Braeden's new Letterman's Jacket.

Okay. It's not any body's birthday, but I thought I'd do a little catching up. Here's a quick catch up of our lives over the past few months. First of all, I forgot to mention that Collin got his Arrow of Light last summer. Hopefully I still have the pictures from our computer crash. It was an awesome night. Brother Huntsman put on quite show.

November: We actually went to Utah for Thanksgiving and had a great time with the Bolton's and Wilson's. It was the first holiday without Tom's parents, who are serving a mission in Boston, and it was quite strange without them. We spent Thanksgiving with my family and Friday with the Wilson's. It's always so nice to be with family. The kids are so much fun!

Katelynn and I went to Tracy Jensen's one night and learned how to bake pies. They were delicious! My kids new favorite pie is pecan.

December: Katelynn choreographed an awesome dance that was performed at her middle school program. You can catch it on You Tube. You find it by typing in K.O. Knudson Dance, then scroll down to find Katelynn and Rachel, The Show. She's the one in the yellow. I'll try to link it on this post, but I'm not sure how.

The kids had their first snow day. I don't even remember a snow day in Utah. It was crazy! On our side of town I think we got a whole three inches, but schools were cancelled and all the snow melted before 9 a.m. Tom and I just kept shaking our heads and saying, "wimps". We went to Utah for Christmas and really saw snow!

January: I turned the big 40! Katelynn and Caroline performed in Aladdin Jr.

February: Braeden was asked to two Sadie Hawkins dances, Las Vegas High School and Eldorado High.

March: Caroline finally learned to ride a bike. Braeden's volleyball season started and he's doing great! I will try to keep up on the articles in the paper and post them as well.

Katelynn was accepted to Las Vegas Academy. They have an amazing dance program and the school is top notch. She auditioned in January with about 200 other girls. She's so excited. I can't believe she's going to be in High School next fall!!!! Kate was also cast as Gabriella in High School Musical, which she will perform this summer with Hollywood Kids.

In January I let Jenna Rhoads talk me into joining her fun little running group in a 10 mile run. Yes. I am crazy!!! I've never ran much more than 3 miles, so at about 3 1/2 I was done! Since that day I have worked my way up to over 12 miles. I usually run Tuesdays and Thursday and then Saturday is the big run. I actually look forward to Saturdays and I've never felt better! We're going to try to get into the St. George Marathon. See what happens when you turn 40!!!!

Playing with Tom's camera phone. Halloween

Singing in her choir concer.

Posing on top of the pyramid with dance friends

Today is Katelynn's 14th birthday. So here are fourteen things about Kate!

She has an infectious laugh. When she laughs, we all laugh. Although it’s because we’re laughing at her laugh!!!!

She has always had a love for music. When she was not even a year old, she would climb on the piano bench and pound on the piano until she fell off the bench. I used to have to put bean bag chairs on either side of the bench to break her fall. It was soooo cute! Now she sits down and plays beautiful music.

She loves to dance. When Katelynn dances, I can’t keep my eyes off her. She is so graceful and beautiful. Her first dance class was about two months before her 3rd birthday. She cried when she had to leave!

She can sing too!!! That’s something from the Wilson side of the family. For as quiet as she is in school and around others (certainly not at home) she can happily stand up in front of a crowd and sing.

She’s a Disaster!!!! Her room is a nightmare! She couldn’t keep it clean if her life depended on it. When she was a preschooler I would threaten to throw away all her toys if she didn’t pick them up. One day she walked in her room to clean it, looked at the mess and said, “Just throw it away.”

She’s a great friend. She will never let a friend down. If she’s asked to hang out with somebody and a better offer comes along, she will not take it and happily hang out with the first offer. She doesn’t like it when girls talk about each other and always looks for the best in her friends.

She’s too honest. I always trust Kate to tell the truth. She even took a B in a class last year because she forgot her reading log when it was due and wouldn’t quickly make up a new one (like most everybody else in the class). She said she would rather take the B and be honest.

She’s forgetful. She forgets her phone, or to charge it; her lunch; her dance clothes; her homework; what time she is supposed to be somewhere and what she is supposed to wear; where she put her book, homework, her shoes, her head! Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

She’s a great sister. She and Braeden are the best of friends. They love to hang out together and they are always talking and laughing. She is a wonderful big sister to Caroline; always doing her hair and letting her sleep in her room when Caroline wants to have a sleepover. And, most importantly, she’s pretty tolerant of Collin. That’s quite an accomplishment!

She loves to read. Kate has always had her head in a book. It’s amazing how many books she has read in 14 short years.

She is an amazing writer. I’m sure it has a lot to do with her love of books. She writes such creative stories. Her 2nd grade teacher used to tell her that she was going to be a writer and her 5th grade teacher used to ask Kate if she would dedicate one of her books to Mrs. Thompson!

She’s LOUD!!! Her teachers always talk about how quiet she is in the classroom. But at home and around her friends, she has the loudest, booming voice.

Two words: Night Owl! She could stay up all night. And when she was a baby and toddler, she did!!! I really don’t remember much about those years…….I was too tired!

The most wonderful thing about Katelynn is that she knows she’s a daughter of God. She is obedient, modest, valiant, virtuous and such a wonderful young woman. I always find her on her knees praying, or reading her scriptures. She really does strive to be the best she can be.

I’m so glad to have the opportunity to be Katelynn’s mom. I think I am learning more from her than she learns from me.

Kate, you are a beautiful young lady and I love you soooooo much!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAROLINE!

First day of school Posing in new clothes!

Received an award for being a good friend to

classmates in October.

The tooth fairy responds!

Conversations with the tooth fairy (August)

Caroline and Brynn. Gotcha!!!

Gracie, the limbo queen!

I think she likes the boots.
Caroline and Devyn
Sweet friends.......til middle school (ha inside joke!)

The next girl band!!!
Oh how I loved my "Sassy Class" You should see

them dance!!! (May '08)

Caroline and Mia cooking up some sweets! (Aug)

Okay so you don't think I'm terrible for missing Caroline's birthday, I haven't been able to blog about it because my computer won't boot. Ugh!

Our Sweet Caroline turned seven-years-old on November 13th. Time flies when you're having fun! Caroline is the Spice to our family. She's full of energy and spunk. She remembers everything you say, do and wear and will give her opinion about it! She's an amazing singer, dancer and performer. If there is a spotlight she will find it (really...you should have seen her find the spotlight when she performed as an orphan in Annie two years ago). She loves cooking shows and wants to be the next Rachel Ray. She's a natural leader, of course it helps that she's a head taller than most! She's fun and creative and always having conversations......mostly with herself (it's very entertaining to watch)! She's my little side-kick and doesn't want to grow up cuz then she will have to leave mommy. I keep telling her that when it's time for her to move out of our home, she will be more than ready and very happy to go! She's full of hugs and kisses and loves to snuggle with me and read. Our family has been so blessed to have Caroline as our little caboose. WE LOVE YOU CAROLINE!!!

She had a Camp Rock birthday party. It was very fun. The party was on Tuesday because we had no school. On Thursday her school was having a family picnic at lunch time. So Tom and I had lunch with Caroline at school and I brought cupcakes baked into ice cream cones for her class. Thursday evening Nana and Papa Bolton came down from Salt Lake. We had dinner, opened presents and to top the night off we caught Brynn and Cindy Hardy after they put a bunch of birthday notes to Caroline on our front door! It was sooooo cute!!!

The only pictures I can post are the ones currently in my camera, which are her party and some pix over the last few months. I'm hoping to get our computer fixed so I can retrieve all my pictures. Yikes!

HALLOWEEN

This was Braeden two weeks ago for the "Bone Game"
between Vegas and Rancho....a 54 year rivalry! What a loot!!!!

Before trick and treats with Jensens.

School Parade

Carving pumpkins in a swimsuit!?!?

Halloween came and went so fast my head is spinning! We had a ward party on the 25th, which was lots of fun. We are now in a new ward. Our boundaries were realigned and the Christy Meadows ward is no more (sniff, sniff). We are now in the Mtn. Vista ward, which is wonderful! Caroline was very sad when all this occurred and I didn't understand it until Gay Whinery pointed out that Caroline was born when her daddy was the bishop of Christy Meadows Ward and she pretty much owned the place. Poor Princess Caroline's Kingdom is no more.

Anyway, back to Halloween! We had school parties, dances and parades on Oct. 30th cuz there's no school on the 31st due to Nevada Day.

On Halloween we spent the afternoon at the Jensens. The kids went swimming and played during the afternoon. We then ran home to carve pumpkins, then back to the Jensens for trick or treating. Braeden was surfing in California over the weekend. Greg Jensen took the boys to their place in Del Mar. I received text messages saying, "Weather is perfect. Waves are awesome. Having a Great time!" So we missed him over the weekend, but he's coming home tonight. Katelynn was with us for a short time, then off to a party. So it was Collin, Caroline and friends for trick or treating. We had much fun and I'm glad it's over. Now if I can just stay out of their candy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GOOD NEWS!

Just checked my account online and the money has been returned to us!!! Yeah. I get a date tonight!!! Now it's just the inconvenience of Tom not having a debit card for a week or so......is that such a bad thing? Hmmmm. Tom not having ability to get money except through me....this is good news!!!!

Theme of the week..."Stealing"

My goodness. What a week. It all began when the seven-year-old girl, who lives behind us, stole Caroline's ipod. It was an old Shuffle that Braeden gave her when he upgraded. She had her Disney songs on there. The ipod was in her bag, which was in the back yard. Isabelle is always climbing the wall to play with Caroline. So she told Caroline that she sold the ipod to her brother. When Caroline asked for it back, she said her brother wouldn't let her have it back. So, last Saturday I had to go to the front door and ask for the ipod that Isabelle sold to her brother for $20. They said they would return it when they found it. The ipod was returned by tossing over the back wall. We found it on Sunday in the grass of our backyard. This was, of course, after the sprinklers had washed it and there were no headphones. The real kicker is when one of the other neighbor kids said, "Well, she found it" to which I replied, "When you find it in Caroline's bag and in her backyard, it's stealing".

Let's go to Monday when Collin went to basketball practice after school and someone broke into his gym locker and stole his cell phone. I deactivated the phone and then looked up his records to see a call was made at 2:50, which was right in the middle of practice. Every time Icall the number it goes straight to voicemail. So I will continue to call 702-205-0263 everyday until somebody answers.

Okay. Wednesday is the worst because a child was stolen. Caroline's friend, Cole Puffinburger, was taken from his home because, it appears, his grandfather stole millions from a Mexican Drug Cartel. The police found gramps in California this morning, but still no sign of Cole. How do you explain this to a six-year-old child?

Just when you think things can't get worse in a single week the bank calls. "Did Thomas spend $466 in clothing at a store in Texas? And did he attempt to buy another $600 in clothes in NYC?" Tom hasn't spend that much on clothing in the past twenty years combined!!!! Shut down his card!!!! Luckily the bank became suspicious and didn't allow the $600 purchase, but we are out $466 for at least 10 days while they conduct a fraud investigation. Ugh!

At the end of the week I begin to wonder where I can find a cave to move my family for the rest of our lives, but then I remind myself of my many blessings. The person from the bank apologized for the money that was stolen from my account to which I replied, "That's okay because tonight all of my children are home and safe." I hung up the phone, read scriptures with my family and in our family prayers we expressed gratitude and prayed the Lord would bless and comfort Cole and his family. As this world becomes increasingly wicked I find peace in knowing I have the Gospel of Jesus Christ; I have the Priesthood; I have the Holy Ghost to comfort and guide my family. I am so richly blessed.

Homecoming

Braeden's first Homecoming was October 4th. He asked a very cute girl named Danica. They do Homecoming a bit different nowadays. It's an all day event. They started with an early morning breakfast. They all met at Jared's house and the guys cooked breakfast for the girls. Then they went riding ATV's. Which almost turned out to be disastrous when Braeden and Danica rolled theirs. That evening they all met at Melissa's house for pictures and the limo picked them up and drove them to the Venetion for dinner. The limo was a Cadillac Escalade....very fancy! After dinner was a gondola ride then back to Braxton's house for dessert and a movie. Did they actually go to the high school and dance???? Ah....no. Apparently that's not cool.

The kids had a great time! This was Braeden's third date. I can't believe my child is dating now!!! I'm too young for this. Tom's not.....but I am!