All Hallow's Eve

Characters from "IT"

Their cars :)

Minion

Bee

MAC makeup girl 

Hippie

Mal from Descendents

Zebra, Unicorn (who wouldn't keep her horn on), Kal with ears :)

Sept and Oct

Fall is my favorite time of year and so far in Utah County it has been beautiful! I loved reading what you guys have been up to so far during the best time of year.

We saw some family get togethers!

Grandma Davis' party was a blast and it was especially cool to see everyone. We got another five generation picture which was fun even though Sally had a hard time cooperating.

Kathryn and Colin got to see Ali with her regional championship in Vegas. Good job Ali!

The Beeston's and Colin Johnston's went to Valencia for Kai's Mission Homecoming talk and the teens went to the stake Halloween dance together. So fun!

Kathryn's Pics:

October came with General Conference sweats and crepes.

Cambrie found out the pukes were going around her school and came home and begged me to take her right away to get a flu shot. Most ten year olds want nothing to do with that.

School pictures came...

... along with Luke's first wreck. He got hit pulling out of a neighborhood taking kids to seminary. It's a blind corner and we weren't surprised, but glad all the kids were okay. The girl that hit him was also a teenager speeding. Steve (the 4runner) is getting a new door among other things.

I took this photo one night to show the chaos of family prayer. My sister Crystal's kids were here along with Madi's three friends. We usually have an extra kid or two around here all the time.

Took the kids to the discovery museum and skipped school when my sister came.

Lisa's Letter: 

September:

Hi family!  Words cannot express how excited we are to get Kai home from his mission tomorrow evening, and to see what amazing things he has in store in the next few years.  Hadley and Sally are here visiting and it will be the first time that all 6 kiddos will be together in...two years!  He flies in tomorrow evening at 6:30 pm, and of course the first thing we'll do...grab a burger at In-n-Out!  It's been a long but fun month of broadway shows, lots of teaching experiences, hard tests, easy tests, homework coming out of our ears, wildfires, BB King (long story), scouts, and just life in general.  We had a super hot beginning to the month, but the end was lovely and cool; almost like we have an actual Fall season here!  

The girls have been counting down to two thing at the end of this month. First, going to Hamilton at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood with Hadley and their dad, and second, picking Kai up from the airport Monday evening.   They are happening just a few days apart, and they can hardly stand it!!  They've been working hard in school, becoming very conscientious and responsible students who are looking ahead past High School.  Ani drives everywhere I need her to and is a favorite babysitter in our ward.  Tessa is blossoming into a great singer and enjoys participating in everything choir at school, plus staying on top of her studies and making time for her great group of friends.  Mason is enjoying his soccer season so far and is learning the trumpet in orchestra at school.  Noah joined chorus at school and is still hoping to learn coding for video games sometime in the near future.  I'm also hoping to get him started on the piano because my new mother-in-law is a fabulous teacher and now she can't tell me no :)  

Life is interesting and full of opportunities.  We're not sure what our future holds, but I'm looking forward to finding out what Heavenly Father wants us to do, where we should do it, and how to best do it with our family situation. We will keep you posted on our adventures and love love love hearing all about yours!!  

October:

Hi familia!  October is just about done and it finally feels like Fall here!  We literally went in to the church at 1pm and by the time our meetings were over at 4, a muggy marine layer had moved in and it dropped 15 degrees!  I love this time of year and the changes that it's bringing.

Ani and Tessa are trudging through until we get a nice fat winter break in a few months.  Dances, choir, YW volleyball, football games, and hanging with friends pretty much takes up their free time.  Ani is staring down the barrel of 17 and has pretty much given up on the guys here in our ward/stake.  She has so much fun with her girl friends, but is not impressed with the young men who she spends Sunday afternoons and Wednesday evenings with.  Tessa has a great group of choir friends representing about 6 different countries, and they are a hoot and a half!  We loved going to her 70's themed Fall choir last week, and looking forward to the Christmas Concert in December.  

Mason is almost done with his AYSO soccer season, and they did pretty good!  He's becoming a lot more aggressive and will eventually be able to control his ever growing spindly limbs.  His trumpet concert is in a few weeks, and just wondering if this is something that will stick for a while.  Noah is singing in the chorus at his elementary school, and is starting rehearsals for a children's Christmas choir that will perform on Saturday December 16th and Sunday December 17th.  It's a pretty amazing Concert our stake puts on each year, and it might be the last.  Our music director was just sustained as our new stake patriarch so he's hanging up his conductor baton after this performance.  

Kai is hanging out for the next few months, then will start at UVU on January 8th!  He decided to just jump in with both feet, taking the ACT this past weekend and will move up there with some good friends from the stake.  Right now he's getting a lot of play time, catching up with friends and gearing up to start the next chapter in his life.  His homecoming talk was amazing and I'm still in awe of the growth that took place in the last two years.  We love having him home!

Jeremy is getting more involved in his dad's trust business, and we are both busy with the newest trust acquired by his dad's company.  We've been spending a lot of time in Vegas, and have loved spending more time with the Johnstons and using Luke and his volleyball friends to do some heavy lifting.  I'm just about to start student teaching, probably after the holidays, and I'm not sure where I'll end up as far as a teaching position.  We will keep you posted on all of our family's many changes that we are in the middle of.  

I wanted to add a piece about Matthew and Jared, since Jared lives with us and Matthew comes to visit as often as possible.  Matthew got to spend time here for his Fall Break which happened to be the same weekend as Kai's homecoming. He got to meet more of the family and loved going to his first dance (just turned 14) with the girls, Luke, and Larissa.  He had a great time!  Jared is working hard at all of his AP classes, show choir, and getting ready to start applying to universities since this is his senior year.  He's either at school, show choir rehearsal, studying, or sleeping.  We do love hearing him sing, play the piano, and the guitar!  Music everyday!!  It's been great to get to know both of them.  

Danya is at BYU and spending all of her free time getting ready to get married in January to Chayden Johnston...yep JOHNSTON!  He goes to the U (we'll forgive him I suppose) and seems like a good guy.  Jeremy doesn't hear much from her, but she's up to her eyeballs in wedding stuff.  

Happy Halloween, Happy Fall, and Happy almost Holiday!!!  

Jeremy, Lisa, and the Scholz kiddos

Thanks mom!

Hadley and Kal 

September brought the beginning of school for Kal and the start of a new normal for me not being a student for the first time ever.

Sally is walking and talking like a pro. Though she mostly says 'mom' 'dad' and 'baba' for everything else. She loves to scream and tell me 'no.'

Kal started a new job working for the hospital as a security guard. And works mostly 12 hour shifts on the weekends when he's not doing homework or stuff for ROTC. We will be finding out what job he gets in the army sometime in the next few weeks. 

 I filmed one of my cousin Maddy's photoshoots and she had real crows that we all took turns holding and I was not a fan. Pretty much freaked out.

This is Sally's favorite spot in the house and will sit here forever. 

At the beginning of October me and Sally flew out to Cali to see Hamilton with my dad and sisters. 

We hiked around the ruins of the St. Francis Dam which is only famous in Santa Clarita. 

Oh and Kai came home! That was a lot of fun and there was a lot of anticipation. I made a little video of him at the airport too. 

Kai and Sally hit it off pretty good. It was pretty sweet. 

This is one of our favorite Sunday outfits for Sally. And she always has a bottle of milk with her.

Kal's birthday was on Oct. 22 and he turned 25! His family was here for the weekend and we had dinner and they sang to him and apparently it was hilarious. 

I just got called to nursery and it was my job to take pictures of all the kids and this was Sally's and I love it.

This last weekend Kal ran a half marathon and I ran the 5K at "The Haunted Half." There were thousands of people and it was a lot of fun! I may be doing more in the future. 

Halloween Post coming soon featuring everyone's costumes! 

Excited to see you guys at Thanksgiving. 

Summer's End

Dear family,

Thanks so much for helping me to keep this blog going! I really do love hearing about all your lives. Here we go:

Logs, logs, logs! 

Grandma and Grandpa

Our efforts to remove the piles of logs on Grandma's Mountain have taken a bizarre turn.  First we thought about burning them.  Not allowed.  Then we considered having them run the through a giant chipper.  Too expensive.  So we bought a sawmill. Now we realize that we will be milling lumber into our late 70's.  That might be a sign of mild dementia, so keep an eye on us.

We are waiting for the hydraulics upgrade we have ordered.  In the meantime, everything is manual.

The log cabin bunkhouse makes progress.  Check back next month for a report.

P. S.  We went to visit Grandma Davis yesterday.  This is what it looked like in Overton when we came home this morning.  It had cooled off to 90 degrees overnight.

Home Sweet Home

Lisa and Kids

School is back in session and the first few weeks have been pretty good.  Went to back to school night for Ani and Tessa last night and got to meet a few of their teachers.  I'll go to the boys back to school night tonight and then the school year has officially started.  I'll be subbing for two weeks at Valencia for a teacher who is taking care of a new grandbaby.  The class is tough, full of punks and kids who are at high risk for dropping out or flunking their other classes.  They quit caring a long time ago.  I'm definitely rethinking my career path, especially after today!

Jeremy and his son Jared are fitting in nicely with the chaos at our house, learning to share the bathroom with Ani, Tessa, and the crazy little boys, and settling in to daily living.  They've brought their routines and are learning ours.  We love having both of them in our home!

Ani is on the job hunt and doing well in her classes so far.  She is a huge help driving her siblings around and getting things from house to house.  She's also very helpful in getting things from the grocery store last minute for me when I'm trying to make dinner.

Tessa is in her women's choir at West Ranch, and made it into Encore, an additional small choir that meets outside of school and sings for special events.  She's excited to continue her journey in choir and looking forward to their next choir trip.

Mason started soccer last week and has several friends on the team.  He also starts learning the trumpet next week in music class at his elementary school.  He really likes his teacher (Tessa had her too), and just has a good time learning and socializing with his friends.  He keeps us laughing!

Noah is becoming a better artist every day!  He told me he would sing in his school chorus and I've almost talked him into taking piano this year.  He is very thoughtful and has very insightful comments and questions when we have family scripture study every night.  He definitely thinks about things on another level than I do.

Viewing the solar eclipse!

It's been scorching the last few days and will continue to be blazing hot for the rest of this week here in our valley.  It was 117 yesterday and over 110 today.  We're hoping we get a break here pretty soon for sure; we're all melting!  We are most excited for Kai's arrival from Ireland on October 2, at 7:10 pm!

 We're hoping that you can join us on October 22nd for his homecoming talk in our ward.  

Block parties and Surprise Parties

Michele and Joe and Kids

August is gone! Not sure how it left in such a hurry! Here's the update...

Joe and I kept busy with work mostly. But we were able to fly to Phoenix to watch Ali play in a couple soccer games. While we were there we took a road trip down to Tucson to take a stroll down memory lane. It was the Sunday, the day of the Tucson Temple dedication. We didn't have tickets to go but we got to walk around the temple grounds and watch the sunset over the sahuaros.  Something I never thought was pretty until a few years after we moved to Tucson.

Tanner and Lauren took a trip to Cali where Lauren filmed a wedding in San Diego.They made the best of there time there with a day-trip to Disneyland...the happiest place on earth!! Tanner moved back to Hawaii on the 25th and Lauren is leaving headed back September 2. We will miss them TERRIBLY!! But we're planning a graduation trip next June!

Sarah celebrated her 21st birthday this month and Derik decided to surprise her with a party. His gift to her was a song that he co-wrote with his friend Ian (the graduation scooter ride guy...remember that?). Such a fun night!

Ali started her classes and is now on the soccer circuit, traveling more than not and trying to keep up with her school work. She is playing so well and it is so fun to watch her! She loved being able to make the trip back to Tucson to see her old stomping grounds. And besides the temple, getting a little Eegees slushee was the best part!

Larissa decided she wanted to organize a neighborhood block party for one of her personal progress projects. It was a lot of work and she didn't even get to be there the night of the party because her boss wouldn't give her time off work, but it was AWESOME! The whole neighborhood loved it and are hoping she will do it again next year. We shall see...

Texas Stalking

Brian and Tanya

I didn't hear back from Tanya this time around so I stalked her Instagram and got a couple pictures.

School's Back in Session

Colin, Kathryn and the Kids

We tried to party till the very last second of summer. The first week of August Madi had girls camp at our friends ranch in Utah, and the day after she got home we packed up and left to Lake Powell with two of our neighborhood families the Madsen's and the Whitaker's.

Blake was at home in Vegas with her grandma Kelly because I was too nervous to bring her (and I don't regret that decision- plus she had a good time with her grandma swimming and playing.)  We had the best time! The secret ingredient was that we all had matching ages in our families, meaning the kids were super entertained!

The next week the kids started school. This came two weeks earlier than last year and it went about how I thought it would... everybody was EXHAUSTED! Cambrie and Rox started at a brand new school built closer to us and they have to be there an hour earlier than their other school. They wake up at 6:46. Right when Luke leaves for seminary. Meanwhile Madi is still sleeping for another hour. The little's get out at 2:11 which makes if feel like a half day of school everyday.

Two weeks later our last one started preschool. I'm still not sure how to feel about this... cry, or go shopping. Clean the house or take a nap, or cry again. It's weird for me.

Luke started his Junior year. Junior year. What the?? Here he is vacuuming the church on our cleaning night like a ghost buster. He's got a drivers test next week for his license. I'm thrilled and completely terrified at the same time. For his student ID picture he borrowed his friend's glasses and his eyes are totally crossed. Definitely some Colin in him. :)

Collin and I turned 17 at the very end of July! He's still busy being Mr. Director and just happened to be in Nashville the day of the solar eclipse for meetings! He face timed me as we watched it outside- they got a total eclipse and it went totally dark for a bout two minutes. He said even the bugs started chirping! We are gearing up for fall: sports, chili, and awesome Vegas weather!!

Provo Living 

Hadley, Kal, and Sal

Kal starts school next Tuesday and I won't be starting school for the first time of my life. Woohoo! I can't remember if I mentioned it in the last post but I got my thyroid checked because it was swollen but the tests came back negative so all is well for now. Kal has started working at the hospital. It is long hours and a lot of crazy stuff.

I am getting ready for September, my busiest month for wedding videos, and am excited to keep growing my list of clients. 

Sally is walking! She is getting more and more fun. She says "momma" for me and "bobby" for Kal (not really sure why haha). She waves to everyone and loves to run away when I need her to follow me when we are out in public.

I am flying to California with Sally at the end of September to see Hamilton with my dad and sisters! Oh and to see Kai fly in haha. 

Thanks!



Here are important dates for the month of September!

1- Blakely's Birthday 🎂
2- Collin's Birthday🎂
4- Tanner and Lauren's Anniversary (2015)💑
14- Noah's Birthday🎂
22- Derik's Birthday🎂

23- Tessa's Birthday🎂