Looking Ahead

Summer's coming fast. I thought I'd let you know about a couple of things to put on your calendar for the month of July.
Steve and Christi will be coming into town with their families on July 18th. There will be a family get together on Sunday the 19th as a send off for Derek before he enters the MTC the following Wednesday. All who can come are invited. We'll meet at our house--the Randalls'--at a time to be determined and will have some kind of fireside after we have dinner.
On Monday the 20th, Mom and I have 20 tickets to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house at 1:00 pm. Let us know who can come. We'll get more tickets if needed.
On Tuesday, the 21st, the plan is for Josh to go through the temple (Mount Timpanogos), probably in an evening session. I'll let you know more details on that when I have them.
It's going to be a fun week. I hope we can all get together for at least one of these events.

A Long Awaited Blessing

Thats right! Michael's blessing will be on Sunday June 7th. We are combining his blessing and his birthday into one event. His blessing will be at our house at 12:00 then we plan to go to Sacrament meeting at one o'clock. Then we will have a BBQ party afterwards. We know that this is short notice and we apologize. If anyone has any questions, please let me know. We know some of you are out of state, but all others close, we hope to see you there!

A Tale of a Bird

Sunday morning was the same as always here at the Lowe household. I was getting up with Michael and getting the kitchen ready for the usual Sunday morning pancakes. Michael was heading into the living room to dig into his toys when I heard the scratching sound. It sounded as though it was coming from behind the TV. At first I was alarmed, thinking it was a mouse but then the fluttering sound made me realize it was a bird. My shoes were already on my feet, Michael was scooped up in my arms and we were headed outside to see if there was a birds nest in the chimney. I couldn't see any trace of a nest up there, and then there was the noise again. We stood there together pondering where the sound was coming from. When we came back inside, I remembered the hole above the TV. Its something we covered up, where a wood burning stove would hook into. I tapped on the board we had covering it and the fluttering and scratching sounds went nuts.

"Babe, babe!" I shouted, as I ran into the bedroom to wake Brendon. "I think there is a bird stuck in our chimney!"

"Are you serious?" was his reply.

After a quick bite to eat, we went to work on moving the TV, and pulling the wall apart. We hadn't heard any fluttering in a while, so we wondered if he got out. Up the ladder we went to the rooftop to see inside the chimney if our bird friend was still there. Looking down the dirty pipe, covered in spiderwebs, we saw him looking up at us almost as if asking, "Please help me!?"

The birdie then started trying to fly out and when we looked back down the pipe...... he was gone. The only logic conclusion was that he was now in the house. After Brendon and I exchanged worried looks, we took off back to the ladder to get back in the house. As I watched Brendon climb back down we both heard a loud THUD!

"I think that was the bird hitting the window." Brendon exclaimed.

When we both got into the house, sure enough the bird was flying wildly around crashing into all the windows, trying to escape.

"What do we do?" I asked Brendon.

"Catch It!" was his immediate reply.

Duh I thought to myself, what else would we do. The bird then flew into the living room window and latched onto the curtains. It was then that I was able to make my catch.

The poor little thing was scared stiff, and a little black from being stuck in the chimney pipe. After snapping a few pictures he flew off into the trees. Hopefully he won't get stuck in anymore chimneys.

Hello

Hello. . .I know it's been awhile since I have blogged. This is what has been happening. . .



Kennedy has her last week of preschool this week. I have a pretty busy summer planned for her. On top of company (Alyssa) and traveling she has two weeks of swim lessons, three summer camps, tap lessons and horse riding lessons. She has had a wonderful preschool year but she is excited to start kindergarten. She is doing well with her writing and she is starting to read well too. Last week they had dress up days at preschool. One of the days she was supposed to dress up like a character in a favorite book. She thought of Daisy Head Maizy. You can see her in the orange dress in the above picture. There is also a picture of her playing baseball. She is also enjoying dance and her recital is in two weeks.
Tristan is excited to have his sister home more. However, I wonder how many days it will take for him to realize that he has it pretty good right now while she is at school. He gets a whole three hours to himself with no siblings (Jack napping) every day. He is a busy three-year-old. He enjoys playing outside and with his trucks still. He is starting to write his letters.
Jack's new nickname is tsunami Jack. He destroys everything in his path. His favorite things are emptying any cupboard (see picture above) or drawer, lifting the toilet lid and seat, climbing the stairs, and unrolling the toilet paper.
Chris and Christi work too hard, are exhausted at the end of the day, don't get enough sleep

and can't wait for a vacation.

We are very excited to start planning our trip to Utah. We arrive on the 18th and will be able to stay two weeks. It's been two years since we went home and I am excited to see everyone.

Mother's Day Camping

Brendon and I both ended up having Saturday off, well he was scheduled off and I took a sick day (tee he he). We loaded up the wheeler and the Ranger and went to the property. My sister and cousin and their families went up as well. What a beautiful weekend!!! The weather was perfect, not too hot or cold and not windy. Today we loaded up the Ranger and went over to the east mountain. (From the Manti Temple, its just slightly south and to the east.) Michael's car seat strapped in perfectly so we all fit. On our way up we stopped off at what we call, "The Beaver Pond" and walked around a bit. Michael rode around on Dad's shoulders and just had a blast. There was still quite a bit of snow up there, so naturally we went till Brendon got stuck and had to wench us out. Then on our way back down we stopped at a camp spot to cook, our camping favorite, tin foil dinners. It was delicious!!

It was a good weekend and we hope all those mothers out there had a great day!

Tidbits

Tonight after family home evening, Tamsyn had her hair flipped over her head so it looked like she had short hair. Doesn't she look like Christi? I thought so anyway. Does anyone else think so, too?


These pictures were taking during our Spring Break in April. We did fun stuff around here. Everyone got a chance to choose the activities for the day. Here we are on Megyn's day when we went to the Tree House Museum in Ogden.

In other news, my story, "The May Queen" made it into the May issue of The Friend. When you read it (if you read it) you 'll find that it's more fictionalized than any of Grandma's stories that I've had published in there so far. I felt good about sending it there, though, so I think Grandma would be okay with what I've done. I hope my family is, too.