All Hail the Wii

Yes, indeed. Our house now has a Wii system. And the surprising thing is...I like it. I haven't really liked gaming systems since my pre-teen days. I get to restless sitting for hours trying to kill or runaway from things with only my thumbs. The interactive play is really fun and I've heard great reviews of the Will Fit too. I think that might be my next purchase. Maybe I will actually exercise during the cold winter months.
As for Brandon and Brayden and the Wii... well, let's just say there's no such thing as a friendly game of Wii baseball in this house.
# of times the Wii remote has been thrown into the wall accidentally: 1
# of times the Wii remote has been thrown onto the floor on purpose: 10
What was your big Christmas gift this year?

A CHRISTMAS LETTER TO ALL

Well, because I didn't get my Christmas cards out again this year, here is an update that I would have sent in them.
Merry Christmas One and All. Here is our year in a nutshell:
Big B - Went on an awesome geese hunt to Canada this year. I think he enjoyed himself and brought home some beautiful birds to mount.
Laurie - Started working again, full-time in Salt Lake, then part-time and then part-time from home. It's been nice helping with the income and having my own paycheck.
Brayden- Was baptized in the fall. Played Little League baseball for the first time and made the all-star team. Earned a league championship in football.
Maddie- Hated every minute of T-ball. Now does gymnastics and loves it. She keeps us entertained with her little comments and drama.
WE hope you have a wonderful New Year.

RANDOM THINGS THAT CAN BE HEARD AT OUR HOUSE

"I'm hungry"

"Mom, your armpits smell good"

"Daddy's butt is hairy!"

"I'll never stop drinking Pepsi, it tastes too good."

"Did you know cream of chicken soup has 7 grams of fat in a serving?"

and finally, my personal favorite: "Cheese is so gooooood"

*** Note from blog administrator: B is in a competition with his buddies at work to see who can loose the most weight by the end of the month. He's quite serious about it if you can't tell.***

PHENOMENON

Definition: 1. Observable fact or event. 2. Prodigy

Behold the 2008 Grantsville Black Gremlins. Ute Conference Eastern Continental League Champs! (In other words... shutout every team they played this year, went as far as was possible in the league)

Want a sampling of what it felt like to be an Alta Hawk in the championship game?

It was like that all year long. Our X-men were in the backfield, our running backs marched it down the field with authority and our wide receivers made high percentage catches.

You can't dispute the facts/stats:

21 Grantsville vs. Alta 0

39 Grantsville vs. Riverton 0

40 Grantsville vs. Copperhills 0

55 Grantsvillle vs. Cyprus 0

48 Grantsville vs. Brighton 0

18 Grantsville vs. Bingham 0

35 Grantsville vs. Jordan 0

35 Grantsville vs. Olympus 0

45 Grantsville vs. Woods Cross 0

35 Grantsville vs. Olympus 0 (Playoff game)

35 Grantsville vs. Alta 0 (Championship game)

Points for=400 Points Against=0

Please observe all the great offensive line blocking, #66 in particular, as evidence of the reason why we were able to score often and regularly. It's a beautiful thing!

Four against two? Never a good thing (#3 is carrying the ball)

It's so sad that the season is over!!! When I washed his uniform for the last time I thought about what it will feel like in 8 short years when he plays his final high school football game. How depressed will I be then? Saying that these boys had an awesome year is an understatement. Especially when you think back to the fact that last year they only won 1 game and got shut out more than a couple of times. Of the 14 on the team this year, 8 were returning players from last year. We gained two great running backs from a different team, but these boys really turned this year around and worked hard to put up the numbers they did. I hope Brayden remembers it for a lifetime.

Maddie's House of Hair Strikes Again

Maddie decided dad needed to look cool so she gave him a faux-hawk. How sweet!

OH THE CHANGES A YEAR CAN MAKE!

What happened to my precious little daughter???? One year of living in Grantsville and look what it's done to her!!!!
Brayden and Maddie 2007

Maddie and Brayden 2008









I tried to remind Brayden that Halloween means dressing up in something you don't usually wear everyday. When he told me he wanted to "dress up" as a football player, I suggested he wear a cheerleading uniform and Maddie wear his football stuff, but he was having no part of it, I don't know why!!! I thought my idea was AWESOME.

P.S. I have to make a clarification to the Sodding post below. I did NOT lay all that sod in the backyard by myself. Brandon came home from work at 2 p.m. and helped and then our neighbor/hometeacher and his two boys came over and helped us finish it up. I'm still amazing though right?

HAZARDOUS

My wonderful mother sent me an article today. I'd like my readers input. Who feels like they are targets? Should I put a password on my blog? How do I make my blog unsearchable?

Staying Safe: Dangers in blogging
November 3rd, 2008 @ 10:08pm
By Nadine Wimmer
A growing number of Utahns are discovering serious drawbacks to a popular pastime: blogging. But we found some cases that may change the way you blog.

Lainie Ottley
Blogs help families share memories, but they can also make families a target for harassment, even stalking. But there's little law enforcement officers can do. It's simply post at your own peril.
A crazy birthday haircut documented on a family blog. His mom never dreamed their Mohawk memory would end up making him look like a member of the Hitler Youth on someone else's blog.
"We were really upset," blogger Lainie Ottley said. "For me, it's a huge offense."
She not only felt violated, but afraid of the association with neo-Nazis.
"Given the verbiage with the picture, we felt like it had created a pretty dangerous situation," Ottley said.
But when she called police, she learned there's not a thing they can do.
"That's some of the frustration, almost daily, when I take these calls," said Rhett McQuist, with Utah's Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force. "Right now, the laws haven't caught up with technology."

For another blogger, who did not want to be identified, the peril came not from pictures, but postings. "We had had no idea who it was," she said.
Degrading comments turned into more than a dozen threats and insults a day posted to her family's blog. "We just felt harassed and started to feel unsafe because of what was written," she said.
She and her husband eventually hired an attorney, filed a lawsuit, subpoenaed Google and were shocked to discover their stalker was a close family member. "It wrecked my trust in people, still does. And it makes you question everything," she said.
Those tough experiences get at the heart of what appeals to most bloggers: posting pictures of your children and making them accessible for family and friends. But how much information is too much?
We surfed blogs and found first and last names, birth dates for an entire, a countdown to the family Disneyland vacation, information on a husband's deployment to Iraq and a slide show of the inside of someone's house.

All this makes it easy, in many cases, for us to go from blogsite to blogger's doorstep in a few computer clicks.
It's just not worth the risk for these bloggers. "If you're going to do it, just know there's no way to keep it completely safe," Ottley said.
Criminal investigators say to Stay Safe, bottom line, don't post pictures of children online. You should also protect your blogsite with a password.
They also say guard information like your address. We saw pictures where the house address was visible.
Finally, adjust settings on your blog that protect your identity and make you unsearchable.
For more safety tips, and for help in tracking who visits your blog, click the related links to the right of the story.
E-mail: dwimmer@ksl.com