Kenzie and Holden just started karate. They had their second class tonight. At the end of the class they had a white belt test. Part of this test was to break a board. The board represents challenges in your life. When you break the board it is explained to you that when you persevere you can break through the challenges that come to you in life.

Kenzie was first. She showed Holdie the way. (as she has done with so many things in his life so far) Shes a great sis.

This is what Norm has done since our last post.

Also most of you know that we have lived here for almost 3 years, and for almost 3 years we have had an empty front room. Well we finally were able to furnish this room. here are a coule of pictures of it.

Needless to say I was elated! I now have a nice visiting room so maybe you should all come and visit.

Last week there wasnt as much visible progress on the tree house. Norm was wiring for the lights and electrical outlet inside. By saturday he was ready to start the sheating on the roof and also did one of the inside walls.
When I got home from work today I could see that he had been busy.

By quitting time tonight he had finished getting the roof ready for the next step. This is shaping up to be quite the tree house. The kids are very excited to camp out in it when it is finished. Great work Norm! I'm not sure if its good or bad but our back yard is becoming a more popular place already. One little girl was watching Norm work when suddenly she said "I love you" Surprised by this sudden expression of affection, he stopped working and said "What?" The little girl (who is about 5) smiled and said "I'm glad you're my neighbor." Norm just smiled back and then continued working.

Other news: Jordan has finally aquired his beloved VW bus that he has had his heart set on for quite a while now. It needs some work but I'm sure it wont be long until he has it on the road. I dont think I have ever seen a smile on his face quite as big as the one I saw that day.

Shannon ran in her first cross country invitational. She is the only girl on her team. Although she is only a freshman her coach had her run with the junior varsity girls. She did great. I am so proud of her. She was so nervous.
After the race my awesome husband surprised her with a dozen beautiful yellow roses and a hug,and told her he was proud of her. Of course this made ME cry. It was so sweet of him.

She did so good. This trail was pretty tough. Steep hills and dirt roads and through grass. There were so many highschools there with pretty big teams. They came from Payson to as north as Weber High. Hundreds of runners. It was fun to watch her run her little heart out.

I wonder if he knows how much his sisters love him.

Shannon had her 14th birthday Aug. 26 while mom and dad were here.
She requested David Archuletas face on her cake......This was the best I could do my little ziploc bag with the corner snipped off.

Just a couple of days after mom and dad left, Norms parents arrived. Holden challenged Bennie to a duel.

I'm not sure who won. But Holdie loved it.

They were only able to stay for about 4 days. We enjoyed having them come to visit us.

Norm was hard at work again today. Here are some pictures, as promised.
Two walls were put on.

We also added a cute little welcome sign with a light, by the front doorway.

Today's progress.

As you can see Norm has been working hard on the tree house. He has framed all 4 walls.
This is looking down through the floor to the entrance in the tree.

The rope bridge turned out really nice and is already a favorite attraction of all the kids in the neighborhood.

Places for the windows and doors were also framed in.

Norm, hard at work.

Just a little more progress on the tree house.

The summer is pretty much over now and it was fun. We were finally able to take a much needed vacation. We spent a week at Disneyland. Here are a few pictures of our trip.

This guy has been one of Holdies Best friends for about 9 years!

We had lots of fun.

We were finally able to begin working on it. I have been keeping track of progress each step of the way. Heres where we are as of today.

Some of you may have been aware of, or even seen the big tree trunk in our backyard. You may have heard of our big plans for the really cool treehouse we were going to build using this tree. We first had to be very patient while this proccess took place. (it takes like 2 years)