The Beast

Random picture of Daddy and Tori and Der-Bear

Dallin turned 14 and Devon had the kids from his group date come by and sing to him.  We bought "The Beast" pizza from Five Buck Pizza, and holy cow it was massive!!  8-10 large pizzas all mushed into one ginormous one!  The pictures don't do it justice!  Happy Birthday Dal!!

Sand 'n Sun

Ryan decided to create a sandbox for the kids at the beginning of the last summer - best idea ever!  The little cuties spend hours in there and get darn creative!  I'll admit, the sand definitely has managed to find its way inside the house and it has sanded off the smooth finish of the hardwood floor in the kitchen, but it has all been worth it. 

Tori's bunny still lives (might be some kind of record for our family), and she likes clipping bows on its little ears. 

Scoutarama

Tori took on the baseball bow and arrow event.  A sweet girl watching her drop it over and over took the time to help her out and show her the ropes.  Then she got a bulls eye and loved it.

Tess and Derek with their rubber band guns

Thankful to be in the Life Flight copter just for fun and not because we had to be in it!

A classic stilt walk

Since I am not working this summer, we are all about spending time together and free events!  Slightly embarrassing but true!  There was a scoutarama thing over by the high school the kids wanted to check out and it was, you named it, free!  so we were there :). 

Eclipse 2012

The moon is just starting to come across the sun in this picture...

so not in the mood for a picture!!

We saved the "Ring of Fire" for Ry's forehead!  :)

This year, the hot spot for the annular solar eclipse was 20 minutes away from us - what that meant was that in Cedar City we were located at about at the best place on the planet to see the eclipse - so, we headed up Cedar Mountain with our cool space-age glasses so we could look at the sun.  Ryan took his hunting spotting scope that magnifies things 80 times, and we noticed that the eclipse was shining back through the scope onto our foreheads when we looked through it.  Okay, I know no one else cares to see our ecliptic foreheads, but it was a once in a lifetime moment for the Henries.  We had a blast :)  OK, by the way, I know it looks like the moon, but it wasn't! 

Devon's Eagle Scout Project

Forgot the tractor picture.....

Devon finally got his Eagle Scout Project done-Hooray!  Thankfully Ryan made sure he did most of the work on his own- I am definitely NOT the Mom that deserves the award!  He had lots of great friends come to help out.  He built and carved out three signs like this one:

Ta-Da!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tori singing a trio in the South Elementary talent show - she had so much fun and they all sang great!  Can you tell by their hairdos that they were trying to be Katniss from Hunger Games??

Tori and I got to go to Zion's National Park for her school field trip.  Holy cow, I hadn't been on a school bus in years!  Bumpy and hot but so fun to be with my sweet girl~

Tori's 5th grade class did a wax museum, and she chose to be Florence Nightingale.  Great role model!  I love reading about her.

Tess' 4th grade program.  She loves to sing!

Tori chilling with her friends in the bubble bath

I went with Derek to the SUU farm on a field trip, and I think I had more fun than the kids!  Someday I want to have my own petting zoo for kids! 

more farm

Derek found a cute little neighbor girl to play with....and then they moved!  He was ticked!

I am backpedaling here....It has been hard for me to blog this year, but summer is here!  Wahoo!  I finished my last education classes in May, and I will start a teaching internship in St. George August 10 - 7th grade science and health.  Needless to say, middle school is not necessarily the easiest place to start teaching, but I am way excited anyway!  I have been waiting for a long time for this, and I absolutely love the school (Fossil Ridge Intermediate School) that I will be teaching at.

Ok, anyway, I loved having the end of May off so I could spend some time with my beautiful kiddos.  I haven't been able to go on field trips with them in the past, so I love LOVED spending time with each of them.  I probably won't be able to in the future since I will be teaching during their school hours, so I just savored every second!  I am doing that this summer as well.  I haven't had a summer free from a job since before Devon was born, sooooo, I am loving being a Mom!!  The finances stink, but I love doing laundry, dishes, playing with the kids, and bossing them around trying to get them to get jobs done!  We have had fun gardening, playing with water balloons, and running up to the little lake on Leigh Hill.  Our favorite part of the summer so far was an 11-day trip up to visit family in Alberta!  My Mom hurt her back, so I decided last minute to run up and "take care" of her.  Well, if you know my Mom, that was not at all what happened!  She wouldn't stay down, stay put, or let anyone take care of her!  She was up working the whole time of course, but it was so fun to be with all of them!  We even got to help my Dad re-shingle the house that I lived in until I was 1-year-old.  I sure love my Torrie Family, and it was so great to see you all! I am going to start a new post and do some Canada pics :)

Sleeping darlin' with pillow pet

Cross-country skiing at Bryce Canyon for youth conference!  Way fun and gorgeous scenery~

Birthday Glow

Birthday Dinner with Mom and Dad- Definitely Daddy's Girl :)

One of their many snow sculptures

Ry and I spent our anniversary in Salt Lake and went to the temple where we were married 17 years ago-gorgeous, and it was so fun to relive those sweet memories!  I am so, so lucky!  Love that man

We made it to a Jazz game too - got to see one of our favorite players, Hornacek, up close, so that was a blast

Devon's dislocated elbow

and broken arm!

wild man!

Picnic in February- so fun to get out of the snow for a day, went to Dinosaur Tracks Museum too....the kids preferred the park ;)

and finally our little muscle man

Hello Cute Family and Friends!

I have had a long absence....Not sure why altogether.  Life has been full of well, just life - my favorite have been the family moments, but sometimes they feel too close to my heart to share, like maybe they won't mean anything to anyone else so I am too chicken to put them "out there"!  Not to mention my blogging/writing previous posts were even boring to me when I read them!! :) 

We are doing great though!  We have had a fun winter and made it through with minor scrapes and bruises!  Devon dislocated his elbow and broke a bone at the same time during wrestling, but I wouldn't have changed a thing.  As his mom, it was soo fun to see him actually totally commit himself to something and throw his whole heart and soul into it!  He worked so hard and was a tough cookie and so brave when he got injured!  I was videotaping the wrestling match and almost threw up when I saw his arm dislocated!  Ugh!!  Ouch!  He will be 16 this month and has his first prom date all planned out.

Dallin got a drum set for Christmas and has loved his drum lessons and keeping us up at night!  Just kidding, I actually love to hear him play!  Thank goodness for basements because it tones the volume down a bit :).  He has a heart of gold and is always so willing to help anyone who needs it (usually me!).

Tori and Tess are loving school choir and getting ready for their piano festival.  They are looking forward to volleyball camps and swimming this summer.  Tess got a back injury sledding a few weeks ago, and they are both enduring strep throat right now, but they keep smiling regardless!

Derek is still our little angel!  I hate to see him grow up so fast, but all of us love our snuggles with him, his sweet smile and laugh, and his energy!  He loves to build with his blocks and to have us read to him.  I am on spring break right now, so it has been a lot of fun to spend more time with him, even though he has been plagued with the nasty strep throat too!

My sweetheart, Ryan, and I celebrated 17 years of marriage this February!  I am so grateful for his patience with my crazy schedule!  He has been there to take me out on dates when I get stressed, has made sure the kids have the house clean when I get home from work in the evenings, and has just been my best friend all along.  I love him to pieces!  Besides that, life for me has been pretty full of classes, exams, homework, a new job, trying to keep up with all the paperwork and deadlines!  I am starting to apply for internships and jobs for the fall and will either be student teaching this summer or fall depending on what positions I find.  I have LOVED being out in the schools a lot more this semester!  I really do love the kids.  I have been substitute teaching most Fridays and tutor at the high school in the evenings.  These have been my all-time favorite jobs and some days most challenging next to being a Mom!  There are so many diverse ways to mess kids up!  Of course that is not my purpose :) but it happens sometimes!  : )
~  Much love sent your way!

Back in School!!

Hi Again,

Sorry I haven't blogged for so long.  I am going to work on getting caught up this weekend before I start back in school Monday!  I talked the kids into letting me take some "first day of school" shots.  Some of the kids enjoyed it more than others!  Hard to believe summer is over.  I have lots of fun pictures to post so stay tuned :).