Update

WELL,,, We didnt move to Reno. We ended up moving to Kanab Utah and I,Ginger, got a job right away working at the Kane County Sheriff's office as a dispatcher. We found a large (really old and drafty) house to rent right in the middle of town that helped alot when I was going back to Vegas for work. Not used to the snow and cold winters (especially with the drafty house) we went through lots of wood and a HUGE gas bill. Cooking with propane is also different(with a stove that has to be too old) things take less time some times and more time on other meals. I haven't gotten it figured out yet. This is definately the place where we are going to settle down though. I'll post pictures at another time since I'm at work dealing with a large fire on Cedar Mountain right now, and just this much took me far too long to write. I hope you all are well and have fun with your families this summer. I'll see you all in my neck of the woods next summer where the family reunion place is only 30 minutes from my house. Bye

Planning on moving to Reno soon.

We are continuing education again in Reno this time. It will be fun and different and new. We can't wait . Bradley turned 16 this year. He and Risa love going to dances and meeting new friends. He is in High school and looking forward to moving to Reno and getting a real job. Benjamin is 7 and loves the second grade. Always smiley too. Risa and Echo go to the same middle school and love being in Mutual together and going to activities. All three mutual age kids and I went on a 22 mile walk to the temple from Henderson in November. The theme was We Can Do Hard Things. It was really hard but I can truthfully say, I walked the whole thing. We started at 8pm and arrived at the temple at 6:30 am. We were all so tired and ready to go home and sleep. They fed us breakfast and sent us on our way. It was a good experience with snack breaks and devotionals throughout it. Most kids said"I'm glad I did it, but I'll never do it again."
Wish us luck. I'll update after a while.

Fondue Party

Risas new haircut

My new car

Halloween 2010

Family reunion

meeee

Its been a while

I figured I better get something on here before school starts again and we are all crazy busy. All six family members are in school this year. Chris is in his last year of the electrical apprenticeship. Yeah!!!!, he graduates in May and I have to have a formal gown by then, so I need to lose some weight. I am at CSN enrolled in 12 credits. I thought I wanted to do Occupational Therapy but figured out I would need a masters degree before being able to work, and if Im getting a masters, I better go a couple more years and get my Doctorate, but do I really want to be a doctor??? I've never had aspirations to be a doctor, and it will take me 8-10 years, so I'm back to undecided at college and will be taking a drawing class and other core classes. Bradley is an A/B Honor roll student this year. Amazing isn't it!!!! He has never gotten an A in his life and this year got 4. He is one year from turning 16 and wants to get his liscence then, but needs to get his Eagle work done. He also wants to go to the Aviation Magnet Program at Rancho High School for the next 4 years. We hope he gets in. Xarrissa is in all accelerated classes and getting c's mostly. She was always my A student. Chalk it up to puberty. Echo is loving Junior High school and is still very blonde and fun. We love how she says things. Ben is in 1st grade and has fun at school but needs more work with math. We are trying, and hes getting better. Here are a few pics of everything fun this last year.

I definately dont post very often. The reason now is that we have 6 out of 6 members of our family in school this year. Chris is finishing his last year of the apprenticeship for the Electrical Union. He graduated in June this year, and is currently working at the Harry Allen Project powerhouse just past APEX. He is working 12 1/2 hour days 7 days a week for the past couple of months. We are actually excited that he will have time off as soon as the job ends. I'll hope that he takes a month or two off before getting back to work. Ginger is attending 5 classes at CSN Cheyenne campus and going for Occupational therapy. I enjoy it, but it is hard keeping up with homework with all of the other mom tasks I need to do. It will be worth it though. Brad is now in 8th grade and enjoying it because he has 3 A's and 3 B's and was shocked to find himself on the A B Honor roll. We instituted a monetary system for their grades a year ago, and we are going to owe him $74 when he gets his report card next month. Risa is in 7th grade and loving Choir more than anything. She is in all accelerated classes, and doing things like making a website, powerpoints, and high tech stuff like that. Its cool, but way beyond me. Im glad she loves it. Echo is in 6th grade and having fun at school. She is also enjoying Achievements for a few more months until she goes into young womens. Benjamin is 6 and in the first grade. He likes school and the extra hour each morning he gets with me

Wow I need to get more pics into the computer.

LIFE

OK, busier life than last post because now I'm homeschooling 4 kids during the day. HECTIC? YEAH...OH YEAH... Just trying to get them to do any kind of work at all seems like pulling teeth, but I;m trying to get it through their heads that learning can be fun, and a lifelong endeavor. I'm trying to teach them that they have the power to choose their life and their desires and their dreams but they just need to find out what they like. In order to do that, we are starting out the day with scripture study and prayer and some sort of devotional and discussion. Then we get into studies which are supplied by k12 which is an awesome program because they sent us all of these books and workbooks and we have a site online that we take assessments and log attendance and its so easy. So if anyone has questions about it, let me know and we'll talk. Ok now on to life.

Chris will be moving on in work and finally get transferred from Fisk Electric which he's hated all year. YEAH!!!!!!!! He finally has a good teacher at school in the apprenticeship program so he's not hating school. We should find out in a week where he will be sent, so its kind of scary and exciting all at once.

Ginger is the crazy homeschooler lady now and not doing the coupon thing as much as I'd like to, but when you have limited money to buy groceries in the first place, it's kind of hard to find a deal you want to spend money on because you need to buy milk. I'm pretty much just trying to figure out now how to seperate school time from home time and let the kids have a break from it, but it is only the second month in school, and we haven't gotten used to it yet, because it is really different. Hopefully it will come together soon.

Bradley is 13, and will turn 14 on November 27th. He is the Deacon Quorum president of a deacon class of 1. We have 3 that come to church that aren't actual deacons yet so we're hoping that he continues to learn and grow. The coolest part about homeschooling him is that I can focus more on English and writing studies for him to get him caught up in his studies and slack off on other things which is awesome.

Xarrissa will be 12 on the 10th of October and cant wait til she can go to Mutual with Brad. She's trying to grow up too fast I think, and is actually going to complete her 6th grade studies before school is actually over. Then they will just send us the next years books so she can get started right away on it. I believe she will have completed High school at least a year early, and with this school they actually get a diploma. Risa is very much like me in the stubborn department and we clash alot, but hopefully she knows I love her and want the best for her.

Echo is 10, and as cute as ever. Her birthday is on January 28th, and she wants her ears pierced for a present. She enjoys playing games with Ben and with friends, but since 2 families have moved out of this area and those two families were the girls best friends, its not the same anymore. We need girls more here or we need to move to a different neighborhood and start over. She is enjoying school since it gives them lots more free time. Echo is closer to Brads way of thinking about school though. They dont care. In regular school they were able to just drift along with the kids and not have to try too hard. In this school they have to master every technique before they can move on. I like it because they wont be getting their diploma like me and feel like they still dont know anything.

Ben is the charmer of the family. He makes everyone smile. We all enjoy snuggling up with him for a hug or a cuddle. He just turned 5 on September 11th and we told him that he now has responsibilities because he's a big boy so I hope that doesn't change his sweet nature. He enjoys running around the house and pestering the other kids into a game or fight to get them out of their homework. He loves to get onto PBS.ORG and gets upset if he cant and cries "But I'm so Bored" so I'm trying to let him know that there are other things to do like read or look at a book.

We go to the library alot, and make a day of it sometimes and spend a few hours there looking for books, buying books from the bookstore, getting on the computers, having reading time. Its cool. I feel it is the right thing to keep them out of public school because they are still so impressionable I dont want them to be followers and in Junior High that is the time they become so. Unless they are very strong willed and know where they are going and who they are, I dont think they can survive Jr. High. I know thats when I got lost. Now I cant think of anything else to write, so I'll say goodbye for now and wish all of you the best of luck. We love you all, and cant wait till the reunion next year. See you then.

Update

Wow its been a long time since I posted on here. I have limited time on the computer with a kid at home during the day, 3 more in the afternoon, and Chris goes to sleep by 9pm, and the computer has to be off so he can sleep, so I try to get in the posts while Ben is sleeping, or 15 minutes here and there.
We are all doing good. UPDATE on Risa's reading goal for December. She didn't win, because she only read about 1700 pages in the month, and her teacher read 1900, so she didn't make the cut, and one other girl read 1750. I asked her if any other kids kept track of their progress like she did, and she said they didn't, so they could have just put a number out there. Risa wrote down the name of the book, the author, and a little paragraph about the book, and then I signed it, to let the teacher know she did it. OH well, there will be other contests.
Brad is still hating school, and we had to crack down on him, because he was failing 4 out of 6 classes at the end of February. All because of missing assignments. He's now getting tutored by his old English teacher after school, and catching up, since I know whats going on now.
Echo is doing great, and getting more beautiful everyday. Ben loves playing with the neighborhood friends. We inherited an old trampoline this week, and the kids love it, but we found out how old when Brad and Risa started jumping on it, and the springs started popping off. We need to get a new net if anyone knows how to do that, let me know. Chris is still working (thank goodness) at the City Center which is owned by the MGM who is having financial troubles, and we're not certain if his job will keep this year, so we'll keep u posted. Ginger is starting small in the Grocery Smarts classes, and will start teaching at the local Rec center soon. I'll post more later when I have another 15 minutes or so to type. I hope everyone is well. We love you all.

Here are a few pics of Christmas 08. I set up the camera to take lots of pics of Chris until he caught me, cuz I cant ever get a good pic of him. So everyone can at least remember what he looks like. The kids had a blast today and got enough even though it was a lean Christmas. Lots of loves.

For Xarrissas birthday this year, we had a slumber party. There were 12 girls between the ages of 8 and 12 there. It was crazyness. We started the party off with the girls making themselves a necklace or bracelet out of beads. There were 5 packages of beads which equaled about 2000 beads at least. Then we pulled out the cupcakes and icing, and sprinkles, and they were able to decorate their cupcakes any way they wanted. Risa opened her presents, and the girls did a dress up fashion show. There were girls watching movies, some in the room painting fingernails, some making more jewelry, some dancing in the living room. It was a mad house. The boys took off and went fishing and camping, and its a good thing too, Chris wouldn't have been able to handle it. We tried getting the cops to come, but our neighbor that calls the cops all the time must have been away from her house that night or MOVED????? Could it be possible? I dont know, but we had the cops called on Benjamins party this year with 15 kids running in and out of the house, a jumping castle in the back yard, and at 2pm on a Saturday. They came and told the lady that she'd just have to deal with it, then announced over their intercom on the squad car "Happy Birthday Benjamin" It was awesome. K. Heres a couple pics.

DADDY GOT A TRUCK AND WENT MUDDING

Daddy has a new truck, and he finally was able to get it dirty. We had a big rain storm early december, and we live near the desert where the water likes to collect. Chris had a blast getting the truck covered. We took a few pics, then went straight to the car wash to clean it up. It took forever, and its a good thing we didn't wait til the mud was dry. It wouldn't have come off at all. Heres a few pics of the carwash scene . There was so much mud. It wstill is dropping off from undeneath. Loves to you all.

Xarrissa is becoming a little lady who likes to be involved in everything. In school, she is in the Student Council, and Choir, which they recently had a concert for Christmas. She draws cartoons for the school newspaper, and likes to read. She has a goal over the Christmas Holidays to win a contest of who can read the most pages in books. She's completed 5 books already, and it hasn't even been a week. She's at over one thousand pages, and plans to get to at least 3000 pages to make sure she's the one to win the Fabulous Prize when school starts again. Cross your fingers for her. Loves to you all.

Official Snow Day Reported In Las Vegas. Its a Miracle!!

Well, The kids actually stayed home for our first ever snow day in Las Vegas. They had a blast playing in the snow on Wednesday night before it got dark, then it stopped snowing by around 10 pm and started melting. By Thursday, there was no snow on the roads and by afternoon everything had melted, but the kids got to stay home still. So one day of school left then they are off for a few weeks. Since this is my first ever post, I'm hoping all turns out well. I'm taking tutoring from Savannah on how to accomplish all of this complicated computer stuff. All I've ever done is check e-mail and surf the web for information. Now that she and I will be doing the Grocery Smarts Training, I felt the need to blog and give my Hopeful Hostesses something to look at to inspire them. I hope all is well with the family this Holiday season, and we hope to see all of you soon. Love from the Oviatts