Well just so all our friends and family know we finally got internet back in our home now! So will be on more than I have in the past! Not much new just ready for christmas! The kids have been enjoying the snow! We live on a hill, and the kids can go out an sled right out side the front door! The older kids sure love it especially John.

An update

I know it has been forever in case anyone is wondering! I will post some pictures soon! I only have access to the internet at the library! Here in preston, Idaho! you can keep in touch with me e-mail jhookd522@hotmail.com! We moved twice this year and now we are living in Franklin, Idaho! Kids started school, they seem to like it and are making friends! Lizzie and John are playing soccer only a few more games left. Lizzie is also in after school orchestra still playing the violin. We bought one for her too have! She was so excited to go with me to get it! Samantha started kindergarten, and seems to be doing really well. Last weekend we went to take family pictures to give to family and friends to share! I will post them soon! Samantha wasn't feeling very well, took her to the doctor monday morning and found out that she had the H1N1 FLU, so the doctor prescribed tama flu, and she was better by wednseday! I have heard some people haven't been so blessed, and have had it for weeks! Ashley is good growing up so fast, we are loving our time we have alone together every day when samantha is gone to school! Brian is good his job is going well, he loves to kind of be his own boss! He drives a propane truck to peoples homes and fills up there tanks for them! I am good just at home still trying to keep on going every day and to be thankful for all I have in my life. I'll write more soon. If anyone from the mt lewis 3rd is reading, I miss all my good friends I made there!

Our Big Girl is now 10 today!

Happy Birthday Elizabeth! We are so happy to have you in our family! And greatful for all the wonderful things you teach us! Elizabeth loves to play soccer, ride her bike, and play with friends, play board games with the family, loves playing the wii at grandpa and grandma's home her favorite is bowling because she always gets strikes! Just if we could really get that when we actually go bowling! She loves to draw and loves music, she has been playing the violin this year! But we moved from Ogden to Smithfield so we haven't got her back in it! She said she wants to next school year again! So we will definately make sure that we try to get her back in after school violin classes! She is a great help with her younger siblings! Her and her brother John have good times together, they get rough housing sometimes and make one or the other mad, but that is what siblings do!
Waiting for Elizabeth to arrive was quite a wait, down to the due date still no signs of labor! 2 weeks after my due date! The doctor had to have me induced which was not fun! 10 1/2 hours later she arrived at 10:30 pm. I haven't been able to scan any baby pictures in! So here is the only one I could find on my computer!


Happy Birthday Lizzie the big 10 !! You are such a wonderful daughter we love you so much!

Lizzie just finished her last basketball game. And soccer starts next week! She is so excited!

John turned 7 on March 8 2009, he had a friend party/sleepover! We only let him invited 2 friends. He wanted stacked enchiladas for his birthday and an ice cream soccerball cake with flames on it! It turned out pretty good for a home made cake! I am glad my kids expectations aren't to high on mom for making them a cake! Samantha is doing good, doing preschool 2 days a week she seems to be liking it, she can't wait to start kindergarten! She asks me everyday when do I get to go to school like Lizzie and John! I just tell her soon, soon! Ashley is good also, she is growing up so fast I can't believe she will be 2 in May and she has been done with mom for about 1 1/2 months now! Can I just say yea!!!!! Other than that not much else going! Just hoping that

Lizzies basketball game! & Draper Temple tour!

Lizzie played a great game today! She made 2 baskets for the team we
rewarded her with an ice cream sundae and a dbl cheeseburger from
Mcdonalds. She did great! They beat the opposing team! Good job
Purple warriors! Her coach is such a great coach thanks Nico Decock
for your energy and love a coaching you are awesome!

The weather the day we went to tour the Draper

temple. We drove up the hills above it and took a

few pictures it is so beautiful!

Brian zoomed in on the Oquirrh Mountain temple

the mountains above Draper!

We Have been busy, just take a look!

Ashley had a really rough night last night. She is not feeling well, I was trying to get her to sleep and all she would do would toss and turn, and cry a lot, so I finally just laid her in her bed because I knew she was really tired, and I was trying to stay awake and make sure she fell asleep, I quess I fell asleep and she was still awake, and she found her way down stairs for someone to sleep with at 6 am I woke up when Brian got home from working the night shift and this is what Brian found, and I just had to take a picture of it! I feel like a terrible mom, for falling asleep, and not paying attention, when you get so tired and have been up a lot through the night with a sick baby it is bound to happen at some point. We took kids to school, and back and she still was sleeping until 12:30 pm today, I can't believe she slept that long I hope it did her some good, and that she will start feeling better.

We Have Been Doing a whole lot!

Ashley at the pumpkin walk in my home town North Logan, Utah! It has been a few years since we have been with the whole extended family, actually I think this is the first time that we all have been together!

Samantha wanting to be the little mermaid!

Elizabeth wanting to be Cinderella. They had these cute paintings on wood for kids to get there pictures taken, Lizzie picked this one!

John picked Yoda, sorry that it is fuzzy! It was about 8 or so at night and I had it on the night time setting, and you have to hold the camera very still, and I sometimes can't quite hold it still enough!

Here is a picture that I didn't actually take it, my hubby Brian did so this is probably one of the few he does take, but I am glad he did!

Our kids have been playing soccer this year and of all the creative pumpkin displays I took a picture of this one! I thought it was great! Whoever was over this one did a great job. I also took picture of some one was a Noah's Ark, Indiana Jones, and a Kung Fu Panda but they all were a little blurry but if any one does want to see them just let me know I will post them.

We had a Halloween Party for the grand kids, on Saturday October 25th at my parents new home in Millville, we pad nummy food, and activities for the kids! Games we played were eating a donut off a string with out your hands, they had fun with that, also we played a picture walk to music ( but with the musical chairs idea), and they played a game with passing a wrapped item and every time the music would start they would have to try to unwrap it, but the think is my sister wrapped it 7 times and taped it real good, and they would have to stop and pass it to the next person, and who ever was done unwrapping it when the music stopped got to keep there treat, and the rest would have to keep going, they had fun with this game. They also made some Halloween eye masks, I haven't got a picture with them on yet! We accidentally left them at G&G Smarts home. We had some nummy desserts too, my mom mad eye balls, they were really good, I should have taken a picture of them, and we had homemade pumpkin ice cream, apple crisp, and pumpkin rolls, I had to taste them all they were so good!

Here is John in his costume, he is batman!

Lizzie was a pretty witch (for Halloween we will try to make her more scary), Ashley is a pumpkin she looks so cute!

Samantha is a cute witch also and she looks so cute!

Jared is a werewolf and I think Kelsey was a fortune teller?

Here is the whole gang, L to R starting in the back is Kylee - Minnie mouse, Lizzie, Ashley, Samantha, John, Bryton - Mummy, Kayla - Medusa she had her hair braided and with actual fake worms all over her head it was great!, Brooklyn - gumball machine I love this idea I am going to use it for one of my kids one year my sister Heather is so creative with her kid costumes, Corbyn - is a boxer and he had make up on his left eye to resemble a black eye and it look like he really had one. Missing in the picture is Caitlyn and Keenan!

Here is Caitlyn she is a cute purple fairy! Thanks Leslie and Rachel for planning the party it was so fun, can't wait till next year!

Here is a story about the black and blue wrist! Lizzie was at recess and playing with a soccer ball with a friend, her friend accidentally hit a boy with the ball, and he thought Lizzie did it so he went up to her and pushed her down. Lizzie went and had to get ice for it and called me to tell me what had happened, so I went to the school, to see what was up! We ended up taking her to the doctor the next day because she couldn't even move her wrist the next morning! They took x-rays and she ended up having a really bad sprain! We thought it was broken but thankfully it wasn't! The doctor said he was mostly worried about little fractures around the growth plate, but it all looked good.

At first the only punishment that boy got was to pull a card! It's part of there daily discipline system, I quess that's what you would call it! But we felt there need to be more done than that, so the principle was made aware of what happened, talked to Lizzie to find out what happened, and the boy who did it and the teacher! The school had to report the incident because it was more severe that they thought! So people if something happens to your kids don't be afraid to call and let the teacher, principal know what has happened now matter what! Because that boy needed to know that was not acceptable behavior and pulling a card is not going to teach him that or teach him discipline either. Alot of parents don't discipline there kids as much as they should, or teach them what is appropriate behavior and what is not! They may not like it now, but believe me most of them will be very grateful later in life, I know I am glad my parents taught me how to behave, and respect people, no matter what!

We decide to cut Ashley some bangs! If any of you haven't noticed! Yes she does have bangs, and she looks so cute with them.

Our Niece Heather was baptized in September! We are so proud of her!

We also attended our nephew Dylan's football game in Smithfield, Utah at Sky View High Schools new field, it is not grass its just that fake stuff, I don't know what they call it!

He is #82

Me and Ashley at the baptism

Elizabeth and John

All the Kirby boy's L -R Patrick, Evan, Danny, Nathan, Scott, Brian

Our Kids soccer season Fall 2008

John at a game of his, he is in the blue.

The two John's on the same team!

Lizzie playing the Keeper(goalie)

Lizzie in her new uniform. The teams name is the Lightning chicks. I wish I had a team photo of both of the teams! I will try to get one in the spring and post it later.



This is our new addition to our backyard! We did all of this before summer, and finished it shortly after. Its our water feature.

These are the sunflowers that John started growing in school in the spring , I was so surprised at how big and beautiful they got! He was so excited to watch them grow and water them. He also grew some pumpkins. We got a total of six he is so proud of them too. We are going to be carving them today October 29 2008. I will post later about that.

Here are John's Pumpkins he is so proud of!


First Day Of School

John his teacher is Mrs. Smith

Elizabeth her teacher is Mrs. Allred

We have had a hard time with deciding if we like public school education or not. We have decided to try to get them into a Charter School its call Venture Acadamey it just barely started this year so if they get in next year, it will be a great experience to learn how it all works and if they like it better than public schools here in ogden. I have heard it is more hands on and they classes are group together with a few other grades close to theirs and a little bit smaller class sizes and they take them out in the world to learn not just in the class room and that really excites .

Family get together at our house!

My mom and niece Caitlyn. I hope its okay that I post this picture! Mom if you don't want me to post pictures of you let me know. It's okay if you don't want me to! I just thought this was a really nice picture of you two!

My parents brought their blow up pirate ship water slide the kids had so much fun with it! It entertained them almost the whole time. Thanks dad and mom for doing that. We cooked chicken on the grill and had dutch oven potatoes, salads and desserts. It was a fun day.

Our Nephew Keenan Thanadabout Our other nephew Kayden Wheeler This is more of our water feature with the waterfall running! A closer view! Brian and a few of the guys at his construction job with rocky mountain earth movers helped set the rocks and pour all the concrete and things needed to seal it. Brian went up to rocky point gravel and rock pit to hand load all of the smaller rock so we could add a border and make it look nice. It was alot cheaper to do it ourselves than to hire someone to come and do it! I love just going out side and watering the plants and sitting on the swing and listening to the water. We have winterized so it will be until spring when we can enjoy sitting out and enjoy the ambience of it!

The view from our deck!

An even closer view!

Our Special Day with Lizzie

The reason it was her special day is because we went out to dinner with her and to have her get a new outfit for school and a pair of school shoes. We let her pick where she wanted to go and eat she picked the Golden Corral Buffet, it was good, I got full pretty fast. She loves to eat shrimp so that was one of the thing that she was so excited to eat because we don't by it very often. For those of you who don't know when I married Brian lizzie was two years old and he adopted her 1 year later in June 2002 it was finalized. So this was part of her big day letting her know that he adopted her and is her dad because the sperm donor gave up his rights when we started the adoption process, and it has been wonderful she has such a great dad, I am so greatful to have him as our childrens father, and he does such a great job with them and loves to spend time with them. She took it rather well! Of course she asked a few questions and we answered them for her. And we told her when ever you want to let your siblings know, we will let you decide if you want to tell them or not. I am so greatful that she was so open to listening and that the spirit was there to comfort her and to not have drama. We believe that if we would have waited until she was in her teenage years that this would have turned out alot differently, alot of rebelling, yelling, and who knows what else. We had a friend who had been through this same situation as me and so it was great to hear what they did to tell her. The funny thing is when Brian called to ask her about it she said "Its funny that you bring up that subject we just told her!" So that made me and Brian feel more okay with the idea that it is time to tell her. So now you all know and just remember that her siblings don't know yet! When they are older and when lizzie is ready to tell them we will sit down with her and be there and support her in telling them!

Family Grave Sites

I haven't ever visited my grandparents grave site since they passed. We were driving through Lewiston after a family reunion and I wanted to take picture of them so I can remember what they look like and to think of them more often than I do. This is my moms parents, my grandparents.

This is my moms sister valerie she passed away due to injuries in a tractor accident. I am looking forward to meeting her in Heaven. Her picture as a little girl as so cute.

My moms brother passed away when I was just a baby! The day that we all will see these family members will be a joyous day!

When we were up at the Rupp reunion in Riverdale, Idaho. We went huckleberry picking with Brian and Me and the kids, and the way back we stopped in Mink Creek to see the grave a guy I knew his name is Tom Jensen, he passes away in July 2007 I wanted to pay my respects to him.

Samantha's 4th Birthday & Rupp Reunion On The Same Day

Enrichment night one night we had a service auction and I bid on a decorated birthday cake and I won it. The lady Shelia Cox made Sammy a Mermaid Birthday Cake. Sammy loved it so much she was so surpised!
Lizzie, Samantha and John with mermaid cake.

Sammy got a new bike for her birthday! She loves it!

We also bought her a cake for her actual birthday because it was on the same day as our Rupp reunion so we celebrated later that night at Grandma Kirby's house.

What a fun day to spend your birthday! We were at my mom's family the rupp reunion and they had a pool for the kids to play in a water slide, and a small pony go for rides on. Samantha loved it and to think she was able to do this on her birthday so that made it even more fun.

Lizzie taking her turn on the pony, she seemed to like it.

John really enjoyed it, I think he went on more that one ride.John and his cousin Brooklyn Wheeler waiting for a ride on the pony!

The Smart family reunion up Card Canyon, Lizzie posing and being her usual self!

We went to Grandpa Kirby's and his wife Cheryl's place of work. It is a buisness that helps with hospice The name of it is something Rose it is located in Providence, Utah it south of Logan. We went to the open house and met the owner other co workers.

Too Long I know

I am planning on putting up a really big post so bear with me. We have had a very crazy time since school started and I just don't seem to have a minute to take time to post something. Brian is now working the graveyard shift at his new job I don't know quite how to spell the company's name! When I do I will let you know. He also is still working a few days a week with his construction job. The whole industry has slowed down quite a bit so he hasn't had that much work! He is having a hard time getting used to his new job working Sunday night, Monday, Tuesday night, and Wednesday is his short day(night). He doesn't see the kids too much on these days but he is glad to have his weekends with the family. I am still baby sitting but a little while ago I switched kids I was watching because I was able to make more money. I am just trying to keep my head above water, I am feeling very overwhelmed with everything in my life lately, I pray that I will start feeling normal, and adjust to all this soon.

The kids are good, they just finished up there soccer season. And now basketball is starting for lizzie! Practice on Monday's and games on Saturday's, and then she also has violin lessons on tuesday & thursday after school, with a music teacher from weber state. She really is enjoying it, she got quite discouraged at first because she wasn't learning much! The teacher has to start out with the basics, especially with new students who have never held a violin before. John is good, he really enjoyed soccer, and now I don't know what to do with him, we will just focus on school work for now! Samantha and Ashley are good, It has been nice getting to know them more with out the bigger kids around all the time.

Check back soon. I will have pictures and let you know what else has been happening in our lives.