Elf This

So I know it's been a long time since I posted anything. Life's been a little crazy here. A couple of my friends and work and my sister-in-law have elfed themselves and it looked like fun so I tried it. I guess that Guy really can dance, who knew?

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

High School Tag

So a couple of my friends have done this and it looked kind of fun so I thought what the heck I'll give it a shot.

1. DID YOU DATE SOMEONE FROM YOUR SCHOOL? Yes I did

2.WHAT KIND OF CAR DID YOU DRIVE? 1985 White Chevy Cavalier, man I loved that car

3. DID YOU PASS YOUR DRIVER'S LICENSE TEST YOUR FIRST TRY? yep!

4. WHERE YOU A PARTY ANIMAL? Not so much really

5. WERE YOU CONSIDERED A FLIRT? I would guess Yes

6. WERE YOU IN BAND, ORCHESTRA, OR CHOIR? Nope

7. WERE YOU A NERD? Kind of, I was smart but I don't know that I was a nerd

8. WERE YOU ON ANY VARSITY TEAMS? Negative

9. DID YOU EVER GET SUSPENDED/EXPELLED? No

10. CAN YOU STILL SING THE FIGHT SONG? Heck Yes! Go Darts!

11. WHO WERE YOUR FAVORITE TEACHERS? Mrs. Gooch, Miss Hoge

12. WHERE DID YOU SIT FOR LUNCH? In the cafeteria or the hall

13. WHAT IS YOUR SCHOOL'S FULL NAME? Davis High School

14. WHAT IS YOUR SCHOOL'S MASCOT AND COLORS? A Dart, and Brown & Gold.

15. DID YOU GO TO HOMECOMING AND WITH WHO? Yes Junior year I went with Ben, and Sr year I went with Brandon. Had a great time both years!

16. IF YOU COULD GO BACK AND DO IT AGAIN WOULD YOU? Nope then my life wouldn't be what it is now and I wouldn't change that for anything.

17. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST ABOUT GRADUATION? It was really long and they said my name wrong like always.

18. WHERE DID YOU GO SENIOR SKIP DAY? Wasn't every day senior skip day?

19. WERE YOU IN ANY CLUBS? Yeah FBLA

20. HAVE YOU GAINED SOME WEIGHT SINCE THEN? I've gone up and down and up and down

21. WHO WAS YOUR PROM DATE? Jr year Brett S. Sr year I was stood up for prom how sad huh?

22. ARE YOU PLANNING ON GOING TO YOUR 10 YEAR REUNION? It was two years ago and I was going to go, but ended up helping my sister-in-law move instead.

23. DID YOU HAVE A JOB IN HIGH SCHOOL? I had three different jobs I think. I was a maid at a motel, then I was a telemarketer, then I work at Dariy Queen.

I tag all of you out there that want to remember high school. It was kind of fun to think back about things.

New Camera

This year is my ten year anniversary at work. It was actually back in July but I didn't get my gift until October I think. Just because I couldn't decide what I wanted to get. I finally decided on a new digital camera. The one that I had was about 5 years old went through batteries like a kid through candy. So the camera I got is a Nikon Coolpix. It's an 8.0 megapixel and it takes pretty good pictures. The night I brought it home the boys wanted me to take their pictures so I did and I got some pretty funny ones. Here they are. Oh yeah and thanks IHG for a great 3 month summer job!

Halloween '08

Yes I am aware this is late. But better late than never or something like that. :) So this year Caden was a tiger, ah scary, and Zach was a cute little dalmatian. Here's a couple of pictures. We went Trunk or Treating with the ward, and as luck would have it they hold the trunk or treat on our street because it's a dead end. So all we had to do was back down our driveway. How nice is that? The boys had fun, dad walked around with them, while I sat in the trunk and handed out candy. We were all done and by in the house by 645. It was nice. Then Ashley and her friends were in and out of the house until about midnight when all the friends had to leave. Didn't get any pics of them, but they're teenagers so really who cares. LOL

Dad and the boys

Caden the scary tiger

Zach they shy dalmatian

In Memory

In memory of Stephan J Bown

18 years ago today I lost my dad. He was killed in an auto vs cyclist accident. Here's a few things that I remember about him.

He had a wonderful sense of Humor
He loved me and my family very much
He worked hard so that we wouldn't go without
He was always willing to help anyone
He was just a big kid, he always told us he was president of the Peter Pan fan club
He loved the outdoors, camping, hunting, he was just getting into mountain biking
He loved cycling, I remember watching the Tour de France with him
He loved animals I think that we always had a dog or a cat or both

I'm sad that my dad didn't get to see me graduate from school, or see me off on my first date, or get to be there when I got married. But mostly I'm sad that he wasn't here for any of the little things, dinner at home when he would get us all rilled up and drive mom crazy, watching funny movies as a family, going camping up at Ferin, falling asleep in his banana chair, the way he laughed and talked, hearing stories about him growing up.

I love you dad. It seems very hard to believe that you have been gone for 18 years. Back then I didn't think that life would go on this long. I know that you are watching over all of us. I know
that you love us and that you are waiting for us to be together again as a family.

This is a picture of my dad and I taken the summer before he died. I was almost 12.

Jack-O-Lantern

Guy just finished helping (okay he really did it all) the boys carve a pumpkin. They were pretty excited. They got to go yesterday and help dad pick the pumpkin out. Then tonight Caden told dad what kind of face he wanted and dad drew it on, and carved it. It looks pretty good I think anyway, I mean it's not professional or anything. Here's a few pictures and can I just tell you that it is harder to take a picture of something in the dark without the flash. I was having a very hard time holding still.

The first face Caden wanted

The second face Caden wanted


Outside with the flash


Outside with out the flash.

The boys seemed to have a really good time and are so excited to dress up tomorrow they can hardly stand it. This is the first time we have carved a pumpkin in years, at least since we had the boys. I know what bad parents. But I'm thinking now that Caden is old enough and wants to that it will become an annual thing.

Crazy Kids

This video isn't the best because it was taken with my phone. But this was too cute to pass up. We went to a birthday/Halloween party at my sister-in-laws house. Towards the end of the night when most everyone had gone home the little kids started playing with Guy. The birthday boy had received a set of "Hulk" hands and they make noise when you hit them. The kids would run into Guy and he would bonk them on the head with the Hulk hand, they would fall down and then get right back up and go back for more. It was hilarious. I didn't get the best parts because I was in the other room. Before I got in there after they hit the ground they would make someone in the room count to 10 before they would get back up. It sounded pretty funny. Pay attention to about 25 seconds, Caden gets whacked pretty good. It's hilarious.

Fremont Homecoming '08

James putting Ashley's corsage on.

Ashely putting on James' boutonniere.

Ashley & James

Austin, Maddy, Ashley, and James

This is a tad bit late. But oh well. Ashley went to homecoming this year. Her date's name was James. Guy said that he seemed like a very nice kid. I didn't get to meet him because I was down in Cedar City with my family after the marathon. But here are a few of the pics that Guy took when James got to the house to pick Ashley up. She said that she had a good time. This was her very first date. Doesn't she look beautiful? :)

Museum

Saturday afternoon my sister-in-law and I took our kids to the Hill Aerospace Museum. I don't think I had ever been there before. Pretty sad to say seeing as I've lived in Utah my whole life and I've lived 7 miles from the museum for the last 3 years. Between the two adults we had 7 kids with us. My two boys, my two nieces, and my sister-in-laws three nephews. The oldest two were 7, then two 5, two 3 and a 18 months. It was kind of fun. We saw some really cool planes there. Both of the boys had such a good time. And the best part was it's free! If you haven't seen the museum I suggest taking a trip up to Roy to see it. I'd like to go again with my Grandpa who served in the Airforce so that he can tell me what all the planes are.

Four of the 7 kids. Caden, Alexia, John, and Zach.


Caden in an ejector seat. I didn't get one of Zach because there was a dad with his kids standing by us and as soon as Caden got out of the seat one of his kids got in and wouldn't get out until he had his picture taken and the mom was in another building with the camera. The dad wouldn't even make his kid get out. I was annoyed.

Caden & Zach in front of "Blackout". Caden thought the helicopter behind them looked like the one from transformers. LOL

St George Marathon '08

The fearless runners Lance, Jenica, Debbie (mom), Vic (dad)

First off BIG CONGRATULATIONS to my mom, dad, sister and brother for running in the St George Marathon this weekend. It was a rainy cold weekend, and only the 2nd time in the 32 years of the marathon that is has rained. My mom blames that on my dad as he tends to have the worst luck in the world. But I digress. They awoke very early Saturday morning to catch one of the first buses at 4 am! It was warm when they got off the bus, and by the time they got up to where the race starts it was raining, cold and windy. They all started running into a head wind, that was driving rain right at them.

My dear sweet dad made it to mile 13 running with pnemonia. When he stopped at the aid station they told him he was getting hypothermia and going into shock. He was shivering so bad he couldn't talk to the nurse there.

My crazy brother Lance ran the entire way, he said that he didn't walk once because he was afraid if he did he wouldn't start again. He finished in 4:09.

My mom bless her dear heart hates the cold more than anyone else I know (except for my Grandpa), she wasn't going to run, but her friend and running partner told her she had trained to hard to not finish. So she ran the marathon for her 2nd (and she says last) time and finished in 6:11.

My sister Jenica didn't train as much as she should have (although she should've learned from me that is not the way to do it). A little back story when I "ran" the marathon in 2006 I didn't train at all, and ended up walking most of the way. Because of that I finished at almost the very end. My family started getting worried about me so my brother Jeremy and Jenica started walking back along the raceway to find me. They found me and walked with me for about the last 1.5 to 2 miles. It was great that they pushed me like that. So anyway, we hadn't seen Jenica so Jeremy and I decided that we would walk back and find Jen. We found her at almost the same place that they had found me two years earlier. We walked with her to the finish line. She finished in 6:45. Six minutes faster than my time of 6:51. Here's a picture of me and Jen after we found her.
We had a good time staying in Cedar City for the weekend at the wonderful Holiday Inn Express.

Picture Tag

So my friend Theresa tagged me. What I am supposed to do is go to my computer and find the 4th file and the 4th picture in that file. Well I have a few different places that I keep my pictures so here goes. This first one is from my Aunt Cyndi's house. My sister Jenica and I went there in June of 2004 to see my cousin graduate from high school. My mom hadn't been back to see my Aunt's house so I was taking pictures so that I could bring them home and show her. This one happens to be of the addition that my aunt was adding on at the time.
This second one is of Easter 2006, this was just after we had gotten home from church and I wanted a picture of all the kids, so I had them stand in front of the only flowering tree we have in our yard. Caden did not want to be in the picture, he usually doesn't. Zach got his glasses in his Easter basket. And poor Megan her heels kept sinking into the grass. It was quite funny. :)

So I tag Ashley, Angie, and Becca. Come on girls I know that you have some great pictures to share.

Twilight Soundtrack

So as I'm surfing the net at home tonight I went to Stephenie Meyer's website. She has posted a single from the upcoming Twilight movie soundtrack. It's a new song by the group Paramore called Decode. It is so good. You should all go and check it out! That's all for now. I was just so excited I had to share. :) Happy Listening.

Interesting Find

So over the weekend Guy and I went down to his parents house. His dad is getting a wheel chair and we helped to clean so that he can get from one end of the house to the other. My in-laws are packrats to put it nicely. They throw nothing away. I love them to death, but their house is a mess. So as we were cleaning we came across this picture. It is from a photo-booth, it's Guy and his dad when Guy was about 9 I believe.

I can't believe how much Caden looks like his dad. This is a picture of Caden from Guy's family reunion in August. You can definitely see the resemblance.

10 Years

On Wednesday Guy & I celebrated our 10 year anniversary. Sometimes it's really hard to believe that we have been married for 10 years, others it seems like it has been much longer. I asked Guy what he would say our first date was, he looked at me and said did we even go on dates? I said I can only think of a couple. We started out as friends, I thought of Guy as the big brother I never had, then one day his sister said wouldn't it be funny if you two dated. So one thing led to another and a year and a half later we were married. The last 10 years have been crazy, I can't imagine spending my life with anyone else. Even though we sometimes argue and drive each other nuts, there is no one else I'd rather be with. Last Monday Guy asked me about iPod's, I let Jake take mine on his mission because it doesn't play video so I have Jake's, mine was a cute little blue nano, Jake's is a huge black 30GB monster that has absolutely no battery life. So anyway Guy asked me after using Jake's for the past 4 months which one I liked better? Did I like the little nano or the big one. I told him that I liked the nano the best, and then I told him about the cool new nano's and how they had a purple one (I'm somewhat obsessed with purple), and all the things they did. So on Wednesday after we had dinner, I said "Hey we could go over to Best Buy and get me an ipod", He says "They don't have one", I said "well Kari said she saw a purple one at Wal-Mart", he says "nope they don't either", I said "How do you know?" He says "I drove all over trying to find you a new 16GB purple ipod and couldn't find one anywhere." I turned and said "Ah you really do love me."

I feel so lucky to have Guy in my life and to have the 5 kids that we have. I couldn't ask for better kids. Jake, Megan, and Ashley are the best step-kids in the whole world and I love them so much.This is Guy and I on our first anniversary. We were sealed in the Manti Temple.

New Blog

So I've added another blog. Wow this stuff really is fun. :) I wanted a way to update family and friends on how Jake is doing on his mission. So I created a blog where I will be posting his emails and pictures. :) Feel free to take a look if you would like to do so.

Tag your it! - Angie & Ashley!

3 Names you go by - Melita, Skeeter, MeliKa Adairm
3 Things you are wearing right now -brown striped pants, blue striped shirt and brown sandals
3 Restaurants I love - The Old Spaghetti Factory, Texas Roadhouse, TGI Friday's
3 Favorite things to do - read, play with the kids, read
3 Trips to plan on this year - trips? What are trips?
3 Things you want badly - more money, a bigger house, I really want another baby but that's not going to happen
3 People who will do this - Ashley, maybe Angie?
3 Pets you have/had - Carmel, Smokey, Tigger
3 Things you did yesterday - worked, tried to potty train Zach, watched the Wipeout season finale
3 Things you ate today - pizza, peanut butter granola bites, and some chocolate milk
3 goals -finish school, eventually get a bigger house, send my kids to school
3 Fears - the only one I have is of someone close to me dying.
3 Things you plan on doing today - work, make dinner, straighten my house
3 Things you plan on doing tomorrow - work, make dinner, go visiting teaching
3 Favorite Holidays - Any day I get out of working
3 Favorite beverages - water, Dr Pepper, hot chocolate

Tricky little 3 year old!

So as I was sitting here and typing out the previous message "Tag your it" and Caden came in and said "Mom you have got to come here and see what Zach did to your sink in the bathroom." So I'm thinking Ok he squirted toothpaste all over, but no I get in the bathroom and he has taken out the drain in my sink, then taken one of my pill bottles and taken off the "child-proof" cap. He then decided that he should turn the bottle upside down and stick in down the drain. See picture below. I just don't know what I'm going to do with that kid. I'm going to have to start putting my pills up where he can't reach them. I didn't think he could get them open. Guy had to come upstairs and take apart the drain under the sink to get the bottle out. Now I have to go to the store and get my perscription filled.


On a funnier note, he tried to dress himself this morning while Guy was in the back watering. Guy walked back to the house and found this.

He is wearing a swimsuit with the flotation stuff at the top, and those are my tennis shoes on his feet.

Zoo Day

Caden, Zach and Nelia on the elephant trunk

Aunt Jen on the Carosel with the boys.

Saturday September 13th was my work party at the Hogle Zoo. Guy and I went and took the boys, Ashley didn't want to go (she is too cool for the zoo). Jenica came and met us there, Along with Rainbow and Garet with Nelia and Joshua. The boys had a great time seeing all the animals and playing in the new discovery zone. It was fun to watch then look at the animals. I didn't stay for the whole time because Jenica and I had already made plans to go to the State Fair and see Lady Antebellum in concert. Unfortunetly I did not take any pictures at the concert.

On the train ride. The cute girl in my neice Nelia. She and Caden were best buddies at the zoo.

Caden and Zach in the egg

Weird Family weekend

After an exhausting Friday at work I made Guy take me to the Texas Roadhouse for dinner. So yummy, I would highly suggest trying them if you haven't already done so. That was actually a nice start to the weekend. The boys were even good at the restaurant, which almost never happens. So then we get up Saturday morning and get ready to leave for Central Utah to my brother-in-laws wedding. My in-laws live in Mayfield, it's a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere. :) The wedding was outside at the park there in town, which happens to be across the street from a dairy, the ceremony was short and sweet. The bride looked pretty, they had a kind of western themed wedding. The groomsmen were in their black wranglers with green button up shirts. The bridesmaids and flower girls were in beautiful purple dresses. The reception was very laid back. There were sandwiches, chips, and of course cake. The cake was delicious. After the reception we went back to the in-laws and visited until about 10 pm. We for some strange reason (we were too lazy), didn't pack any over night bags for us. We were just planning on coming back that night. But we were having so much fun catching up with some of the family. I do miss them at times, and us Adair step-moms have go to stick together. :)

After we were done visiting we drove up to my moms house in Woodland Hills, by Spanish Fork, and decided we were too tired to drive home. We spent the night there and hung out the next day to have birthday dinner for my sister Serena. She turned 13 on Friday. So we had taco's for dinner and homemade pies for dessert. My dad makes the best pies ever. Or so I'm told since I don't really like fruit pies.

Did I mention that Ashley was a little ornery?
Caden holding his little cousin Jason
Mommy helping Zach hold Jason

Then we got home and someone had decided to be tremendously nice to us and had brought over some food from Smith's caselot sale. I will probably never know who did that for us. But it was so amazingly generous and self-less. If I ever find out who it was I'm sure I'll be too overcome with emotion to even say anything. It is one of the nicest things that has happened to our family. It's great to know that we are being looked after even if I don't know who is looking after us.

Ashley's 16th Birthday

So this is going to kind of be in backwards order because I put the pictures in wrong. But oh well. So Ashley's birthday was a couple of weeks ago. She is now 16, I'm having a hard time believing that, I think that Guy is having an even harder time. For her birthday her BFF Jackie and I threw her a surprise party. She had no idea until the day before, then through a series of unrelated events she kind of figured it out. But that's ok it was still fun. Then on her birthday her friends Jackie and Chandler came and destroyed, I mean decorated her room, while I took her out to get her license, to get some lunch and to the mall to have some girl bonding time.

Ashley is such a beautiful and sweet young woman. I feel very blessed that I am lucky enough to be a part of her life. She is such a great help around the house. She loves her horse even after he fell on her. She is such a great friend, and someone I love to talk to. It's crazy to me that she is a junior in high school. When I first met her she was such a cute little toddler. It's been so much fun to watch her grow into the the wonderful person she is today.

Ashley's Room after decorating!

Chandler one of the culprits.

Jackie the other culprit

Chandler, Glen, Johnny, Jackie, Ashley, and Chelcee
The kids from the surprise party

Ashley in her birthday tiara!

First Day of Kindergarten

So today was Caden's first day of kindergarten. He was so excited, he couldn't hardly wait to go. In fact since back to school night a couple weeks ago, Caden has been asking me when he get's to go to school. So today I go and pick him up from the sitter's to take him to school. He wanted both Guy and I to drop him off so that's what we did. I think that he is going to be fine. He didn't even care when we left. He just was so happy to be at school. I hope that continues though-out his years in school. Here are a couple of pictures from the day. This was outside before we walked in. The other one, I swear he is not sticking his pencil up his nose, he is just thinking.

So when I picked him up from the daycare. I asked Caden how his day went. He said that he had lots of fun in school and the only name he remembered is his teacher Mrs. Cragun. I guess that' a good name to remember. ;) He's my little trooper I'm so proud of him.

Country Jam

So this past weekend Jenica and I went to Country Jam in beautiful Mack, CO. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's 4 days of country concerts out in the middle of a field. So fun and sooo hot. This year we were able to see the following performers; Colin Ray, Rodney Atkins, Lady Antebellum, Diamond Rio, Clay Walker, Josh Turner, Jamie O'Neal, Jason Aldean, Tim McGraw, Little Big Town (my personal favorite), and Sugarland. :)

We had fun hanging out, dancing and listening to some great music. For LBT I bought Jenica Sky Box seats for her birthday. So for that concert we were actually on the stage. It was soo freakin' awesome! Jenica has all the pictures so as soon as she gets them to me I'll post them.

Oh and in case you are wondering a large bag of ice from Wal-mart is 20 lbs. So if you buy 2 large bags you will have 40 lbs of ice and that doesn't fit in a normal size cooler that has food in it. If you put it in the trunk of a Hyundai Elantra for about 2 hours in the heat, it will leave about 2 inches of water in the bottom of your trunk.

Update from Elder Levingston

So it's now been three weeks since Jake went into the MTC. We have received three letter from him so far. It's nice that on his p-day he can get on the internet and email us. He is doing really well. He loves it down there, they get to go to the temple once a week as well. He says that he has also learned to love rice and beans which he hated before he left. It's really good to hear from him. He is very buys, and says that it's really hard, but he knows that he has made the right choice by going.

I'll try to update more frequently. If anyone would like to send him letters let me know I have his snail mail and email address.

High School Graduate

A HUGE CONGRATULATIONS TO MEGAN!!!!!

Megan graduated from Grantsville High School on May 29th as one of the two Valedictorians. Our Megan is such a smart girl! As Valedictorian, she got to give a speech at graduation, hers was great. (I have it on video, as soon as I figure out how to download it I'll post it.) The graduation itself was good, it wasn't too long so we didn't all get bored. ;) Megan had lots of family there to support her. Before the graduation we took Megan out to eat, she picked the Spaghetti Factory. We had lots of fun there teasing each other.

Megan is going to go to UVU (Utah Valley University) in the fall, where she has received a full-ride scholarship. She also received a scholarship for $3,500 from my work. There were 96 applicants for this scholarship and 6 recipients.

If it sounds like I'm bragging on her it's because I am. We are soo very proud of Megan and all that she has accomplished. She is a very self-motivated, dedicated girl. We never had to remind Megan to do her homework, or bribe her to get good grades. It was just something that she did for herself. Megan graduated having only received one B in her entire High School career (and we don't want to talk about the stupid teacher who gave her a B).

GREAT JOB MEGZ!

Missionary Time

Megan, Levi, Jake and Ashley at the airport before Jake left.

For those of you who don't know Jake received his mission call in February of this year. He is going to the Brazil Curitiba Mission. He reported to the MTC in Sao Paulo on June 10th. Yes I know that was three days ago. So let's back up. On May 3rd Jake went through the Bountiful Temple. Wow, that has to have been one of the best days of my life this far. It was such a wonderfully uplifting experience to be able to go through with Jake for his first time. I will always remember how I felt that day and the spirit that was there.

Jake and I at the temple

Then the next week, Sunday May 11th, Jake spoke in our ward as kind of his farewell. He spoke on mothers. His mom came up to our ward to hear him speak and he gave a wonderful tribute to her, and to me as well. I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this kid. I couldn't ask for a more wonderful step-son, and older brother for the little boys. So after Sacrament meeting we came back to our house and had some food, and visited with the family.

Jake next spoke for his "real" farewell as he would say, on June 8th in Stansbury at his mom's ward. Guy and I and our kids went down for the entire block, Jake wanted to go to Priesthood with Guy one last time. A funny thing happened in Relief Society, I went with Megan, Ashley and Melissa. When they asked for visitors, Melissa turned to Megan and said "You have to introduce Melita, I'm not sure what to say". Melissa is Guy's ex-wife, her and I get along just fine. Anyway Megan introduced me as her step-mom and the rest of the meeting was fine. I don't know why I just found it funny. But it guess it would've been weird to say "This is Melita, my ex-husbands new wife". Anyway, during Sacrament meeting Jake gave a wonderful talk on faith, he didn't seem very nervous. He had prepared so well, he didn't even have to hardly read his talk at all. There were a lot of people there to support him. Ok if you know Jake a lot of them were girls. :) It was really nice. After church we went to Melissa's house and had her homemade ravioli, it was delicious. It was nice to visit with all the family that came out and Jake's friends from high school that we hadn't seen in a while.

That brings us to Tuesday and the airport. Our poor little Jake had never flown before in his life, so he was quite nervous to fly. We got him to the airport took some pictures, visited for a while and then sent him on his way through security. We watched him walk all the way through security, and then watched as he went up the escalator and out of sight. We were all teary eyed and we watched him go. Jake has grown up so much, he has turned into a wonderful young man and I'm sure will be a great missionary for the Church in Brazil. I will keep you updated on his progress as I get updates from him.

We do know that he got to the MTC safe and sound. Also if any of you would like his address to mail him a letter just let me know and I'll get it to you. I'm sure that he will love anything he gets from home.Jake at the airport.