Where to begin???????

Where do I even begin? I have not posted in such a long time, that I had decided to give it up all together......then I get to thinking about all of the things I would love to remember what our family has done, accomplished, started or attended.

I taught young women's a few weeks ago about journals. I am not one to keep a typical journal. I was feeling guilty about teaching this lesson till I read it all the way through. I do keep a journal....through scrapbooking and my blog. So, I need to be better about keeping it up to date.

Doug received another promotion and now is Director of Sustainability and Commercialization for Arch Chemicals. With this new position he will be and has been traveling so much. He has been to Canada to many times to count, Connecticut, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, and New York just to name a few. He will be going to 19 different countries by the end of the year. When he is off of work, he is working and attending all of his children's events. He works so hard for our family and I am VERY proud of him and the accomplishments.

I have been busy being a mother and making sure everyone is where they need to be on time. I will attend everything of my kids events as long as I am able to do so. It is my life and I love it. I want my kids to see me in the stands and know that I was always there for them no matter what. I am still loving being the Young Women's President which keeps me busy in itself. I just earned and received my Young Women's Medallion again for the second time. I truly have a testimony of the personal progress program and encourage every woman to do it.

Jessica has been busy dating, volleyball, friends, seminary, AP testing, young women's and did I say dating. She recently went to the LDS Prom held at Georgia Tech. She had a blast. She will be turning 18 this year, which seems unreal to me. I am not old enough to have an 18 year old.

Hunter is such a busy kid. He attends early morning seminary, spring football workouts, wrestling workouts, scouts, young men's, and playing baseball too. Not to mention dealing with all of the girls!!!!

Spencer is such a crack up. If there is music playing he is dancing his heart away. He is playing baseball too and is loving scouts. He played basketball again this year with Doug as his coach. He continues to improve his skills.

Taylor is LOVING achievement days. She can't wait to be in Young Women's and is hoping I will still be in there. Good luck with that one Taylor.....you still have two more years before you will be 12. She played basketball for the first time this year and loved it.

I am not one to be a great writer and I know you are all aware of that, but hey I learned that it isOK. I am me and not someone else. I have my great qualities, just like everyone else.

Here is a video my friend and her husband put together for Jessica's Prom 2010. Lora you did an amazing job with the pictures and I can't thank you enough. Jessica went with Drew Besson and a great group of friends. We thought it would be fun for them to go to downtown Canton and take some fun group shots!!!!

Click on the link below titled (formal night 2010)

Formal Night 2010

Family Photos from the summer 2009

We took a bunch of family photos this summer up in the white mountains of AZ, up by big lake. My neice Sterling, took all of them and did an amazing job. Here are some of our favorites:

Where to begin......

It has been so very long since I have posted. We have been so very busy and had a fun, exciting summer. I will have to post more about all of that later. I have decided to just start back with school pictures and what we have been up to lately. It hurts my head to think about all of the things I could write about and tell about.

The kids first day of school pictures:

Jessica with her friend Andrea, who came from AZ to visit us for over a week was there still on Jessica's first day of school. This is them before leaving to go to seminary. Jessica is 16 and a Junior this year. She is on the Varsity Volleyball team and loving the sport.

Hunter is a Freshman this year. He starts high school and seminary. He is 15 and is on the freshman football team playing outside linebacker. He has grown to 5'9 this summer.

Spencer is 10 and in the 5th grade. He is currently playing fall baseball and loves it. Taylor is 9 and in the 4th grade. She is playing volleyball at the YMCA. She is the youngest and smallest one on her team, but everyone thinks she is so dang cute. I need to be better about posting and hopefully I will catch up more later, but for now this is all I can do.

I am Loved

Ever since my kids could eat solid foods I made heart pancakes for breakfast for Valentines day. I would always put a note in there lunch with a special treat, and a little box of chocolates. This year it was on a Saturday, so no note in there lunches with a special treat. I did make them our annual heart pancake breakfast. My hearts did not turn out as great this year, but I was in a hurry because I had a Stake Young Women's Leadership meeting in the morning from 10 to 12.

We had some extra special kids with us on Valentines day morning. Who enjoyed our tradition. Jessica and Hunter are not in this picture, because they were just getting up.

I left that morning in such a hurry I did not have time to clean anything up and left my house a mess. I wished everyone a Happy Valentines day and left for my meeting, which was 30 minutes away. When I got home I was really wishing that my family would have cleaned up the huge mess I had made from that morning. This is what I encountered when I came home:

This beautiful note on the back door inviting me:

It immediately put a smile on my face. I walked into the house and it was immaculately clean and the table was set just like this. A peach rose from each on of my kids and white roses from Doug, with a special note/card from each of my children and a love letter from my husband.

With a dinner Menu of what they were going to serve that evening for dinner. I had to wait in the other room till they were finished and they called me into dinner and this is what the table looked like. I wish I would have taken one with all of the kids sitting down. Doug made it all. It was heavenly, and plenty left for the next day and it was just as good the second day. Thank you Doug, Jessica, Hunter, Spencer, & Taylor for making me feel so loved.

I love you!

Jessica has her license

Jessica got her license on Friday February 6th. We waited forever at the DMV. We showed up at 9am and she tested and passed at 11:45am, but we did not get out of there until 1:15p.m. Can you say CRAZY? The state of Georgia is ridiculous on all of there little rules. We had to have the following for her to get her license:

1-13 pages of me signing off that she is satisfactory in checking the tires, parallel parking,

switching lanes etc, etc, you get my drift.

1 -30 hour driving course taken online certificate

1- ADAP certificate( Alcohol and Drug awareness class she took in health)

1-School attendance certificate notarized by the High School she attends.

1-40 hour tracking sheet that she drove for 40 hours with my signature and notarized

$10 for the license

We had all of the documents, but being there so long and be shuffled from one counter to another four different times, they lost one of the pages. I just filled out another one right there on the spot. I thought for sure they were going to make me stand in line again for some dumb reason. She did a great job and passed with flying colors.

On Saturday Doug, Spencer and I were sick (and still are) so I had Jessica run to the store for a few things all by herself (well she took Hunter and Taylor), but she was the licensed driver. Later that day she took Hunter and Taylor to there friends houses and picked them up too. It was nice to have another driver in the house who could run errands for us. Doug and I were nervous, but had confidence in her. She is growing up to fast and will soon be graduating High School and off to college. It is a bitter-sweet thing in my life to have a daughter who is now driving and out on her own in the world.

Christmas Letter 2008

We all have been so busy this year that I still have not had time to send out Christmas cards, so I opted to do a email, blog one this year. I hope this does not offend anyone, but please understand I am trying to simplify our lives as best as we can. We took our family photo this past Sunday the 21st right before church and I am happy to say we did it on the second take. Yeah!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS 2008

We hope at this time of year you are all doing well. We want each of you to know that we love and miss you. Our family has had a very blessed, busy year.

Here is to summing all of 2008 in a condensed version.

Doug: A father, husband, brother, son. He continues to work for Arch Chemicals and is going on his 15th year there. He loves his job and is very good at what he does. He is the Cub master for our ward. He is great and creative with the boys. He has traveled more than he cares to this past year going all over the US and Canada. He is the best father and loves his family more than anything.

Renee: A mother, wife, sister, daughter. She is enjoying being a stay at home mom, which she is never at home. She is always, taking someone here or there. She is currently the Young Women’s President of our ward and loves working with the girls. She has done a card group this past year and will continue it into next year with another group of woman. She loves to scrapbook in her spare time.

Jessica: A daughter, sister friend is 16 and is a sophomore this year. She just finished the volleyball season at school and is getting ready to start the track season. She wants to defend her current title as the fastest girl in her high school of 2500 students. She has the record in the 100, 200, and the 4x100 relay. She is on the Stake Youth Committee and enjoys socializing with her friends when she has the time. She is sixteen now, but not in a hurry to get her license, as much as her parents are. She likes that she can date now too.

Hunter: A son, brother, friend is 13 and an 8th grader this year. He is the Deacon Quorums president. He has grown in the past two months so fast that we have had to buy him two pairs of shoes and more jeans. He played defensive back on his 8th grade football team. They made it all the way to the playoffs. Hunter missed out on the last three games, due to his knee. (He had surgery on it last year.) But all is well and he can play sports again soon. He loves football, football, and can I just say football. He follows in his father’s footsteps and loves ASU.

Spencer: A son, brother, friend is 9 years old and in 4th grade. He decided not to play football this year, but regretted the decision. He is excited to start baseball. He is very smart in school and is in the gifted program. He loves playing any kind of game and does not really play with toys, just games. He started piano lessons a few months back and doing great. He will be playing “Away in a manger” for our Christmas Eve. Spencer loves the Oregon Ducks, but also ASU. His dad is sad about this, but Spencer loves the fact that he was born in another state then the rest of his family.

Taylor: A daughter, sister, friend is 8 years old and is in 3rd grade. She decided not to take dance this year. She started achievement days and gets really upset if she has to miss. She had the chicken pox this year. She was baptized in April by her dad. She also started piano lessons and loves it. She will play the song “Up on the house top” for our Christmas Eve.

We also enjoyed several family vacations this year. We hope to be able to come home to AZ next summer for a few weeks over the 4th of July. We are so thankful for each one of you in our lives and especially our brother, Savior Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

Doug, Renee, Jessica, Hunter, Spencer & Taylor Udall

The Christmas Tree

We always decorate our Christmas tree the first Monday after Thanksgiving for Family Home Evening, but this year we had to decorate it on Sunday night. Doug was leaving out of town for work (again) for a few days and the kids wanted to get the tree up. Ok, Ok I wanted to get the tree up, but the kids wanted to after I suggested it.

Hunter kept trying to put his ornaments higher than Jessica's. He got a chair and put a bucket on it, just so his would be the highest and they are.

Spencer

Jessica caught in the middle of a sentence.

Taylor is always joyful about anything Christmas. The finished product Afterwards we played a game called sequence that our family really enjoys playing. Doug and I were on a team, Jessica and Hunter were a team and Spencer & Taylor were the other team. Who do you think won? Spencer & Taylor won the first, Doug and I the second and Jessica and Hunter the last game. Taylor and Spencer are really, really good at this game. The next day we received quite a few snow flurries. Can you see the white on the bench? Well it snowed and has been cold all week long. I believe it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Pies, Pies and more Pies

Today I made pies, pies, and more pies. If it was up to my family they would have me make so many pies, but this year I told them I would only make five.

This is what they chose:

Two cherry cream cheese

Banana cream

Peach

Pumpkin

I was to tired to go down to the basement to take pictures of the cream pies that are in the refrigerator, so you will just have to look at my pumpkin and peach. They turned out perfect! Hopefully they will taste just as good as they look tomorrow.