When it rains, it Pours!

We had another downpour the other day coupled with thunder and lighting. It rains so hard that we all run out to the patio to just watch it. It's just amazing. The raingutters on top of the house get full so fast that pretty soon the water is just pouring off the roof in every direction -- even though the rain spout is empting water as fast as it can.


As you can probably see in this picture, it seemed there was a river running through our backyard. It actually did a lot of damage to our expensive 'pinestraw' towards the back of the yard. We could see the water just carry chunks of it away with it, towards the forest.


The kids had so much fun watching it. Where they are standing, even though covered, they were getting wet. The kids wanted to go running throught it -- maybe one of these times I'll let them. The rain only lasted about 20 minutes... but we had so much water.

It's still a boy!

I had my official ultrasound this morning. They wanted to get me in quick since I am already 25 weeks along so they sent me to the Columbus Diagnostic Center instead of the hospital on base. It was the quickest and best ultrasound I've ever had. (I mean the long offical ones honey, not yours!) ...mostly I didn't go in with a full bladder like you're suposed to so I just relaxed in the dimly lit room and almost fell asleep as she gave my tummy a massage. The baby was moving around a lot and kept yawning or opening and closing his mouth. It was fun to see. Here's a picture of his profile. They took a picture with a big arrow pointing to his 'you-know-what'but for the little man's privacy and so that I'm not flagged for inapropriate material I will leave it off. But I will have you know.... It's still a boy!

The first day of School

Seems crazy we are starting the school year already. Never before have I taken my kids 8:30 am 'first day of school pictures' in 88 degree weather with 80% humitity. It was pretty hot! The kids were so excited for school. Their teachers are both great. Their school is Eagle Ridge Academy... but it is not quite finished being built. They will transfer over on October 1st. Until then they have organized the classes so that Ryan and Katie's whole class with teacher will be moving over to the new school. I think it's going to be a great year.


Quotes from Katie's first day of school journal entry:
My teacher is Mrs. Jordan. She’s nice to me. My teacher is pretty. I like to write letters to her and I’m going to email her. My teacher has blondish-brownish hair. She can’t remember my name that well yet. At the end of the day she had to say “What’s your name again?” and I said, “Katie” and she said “How can I not remember that?”. My table is called the Monday table. There is a little store in our classroom and if we are good we get a little money and we can buy stuff… there is nail polish… I think I will get that. Some of the people in my class are Allie, Keke, (she’s the one that’s mostly bad at my table) Sara, (she’s at my table, she’s the nice one) Hunter, and I don’t really know anymore. Pretty soon I’ll know all of their names.


Quotes from Ryan's first day of school journal entry:
My teacher’s name is Mrs. Ward. I think she’s going to be the greatest teacher I’ve ever had. Whenever I’ve had a new teacher they get to be the best. In my class we did fun activities all day. In the morning we stopped and had lunch, well, we had brunch. I ate at 10:00 in the morning and they said that we should bring snacks for the afternoon but not if it’s bad for your body. You can’t have any sugar drinks only water or crystal light. There was only 2 boys on the table I was on. I did not like being around all those girls. They were girlie and yucky… not like Tori. We didn’t have any recess.

All about Megan

Age: 2 years 4 months
Favorite shows: Dora, Strawberry Shortcake, Princess movies
Favorite toys: Kitchen and play food, her animals, her Princess puppets, Jumbo legos, her Fisher Price doll house and little people, and her Bitty Baby (right now named Baby Leah after a cute new cousin)
Favorite things to do: Play with Katie, Emily and Ryan, be silly, drink chocolate milk, watch Dora, sing songs, have baths and showers, run as fast as she can, jump really high and fall to the floor, go to nursery, play dress-up, give hugs after family prayer, be chased, rub her chin and say "Hmmmmmm" when she's thinking of something or deciding something, wear dresses everyday ("Mommy, I wear a dress so I be a princess!") act like a doggie, play with her 'chicken' (she means kitchen and she knows she's saying it wrong but she can't say it) watch emily play "dot com" (anything on the computer), sit on mommy's bathroom counter and talk about animals while she gets her hair done, walk "by self" in the stores, point at things and say "that's so cute, Mommy", sing the songs of Wicked, watch a 'mooney' (movie) and do everthing herself.




Megan is entering the silly toddler stage. It doesn't help that she has three siblings who laugh at EVERYTHING she does. She is liking the attention and now tries to come up with silly faces, silly dances, and silly poses... all to make them laugh. On this night when I had the kids run and get their pajamas on, she ran too and came back with pajama pants and her favorite pink flowered hat to go with it. When the girls saw her ensemble they giggled and it made her act silly for a half hour!

Backyard Wildlife

It's been fun to look out my kitchen window and see the wildlife. There's a big open field and forest to the left. We've seen a deer - with big antlers and everything!, blue birds, the tiniest lizard I've ever seen, lots of humming birds, a big spider or two, a whole flock of birds, (Katie and I counted 35 on our lawn... yep, it's a big lawn) steroid using bees! - they're massive! and my favorite... huge beautiful butterflies. Anytime anyone sees one we yell it through the house and go running out to see them better. They love the bushes right outside Ryan's room window so he sees them all the time. What fun new pets we have!

Emily, You're Amazing!

Emmy is a swimmer! We practiced twice in Utah and she made good progress. She didn't love practicing but knew Mom and especially Dad would make her try to swim a little bit every time we went. Once Chris came to the pool late after golfing. As soon as Emily saw him walk in she said, "Oh great, you're going to make me put my face in the water, aren't you?" You got it... she mastered doggie paddling and we celebrated with ice cream... but she was still doing everything in her power not to get her face wet! Then we practiced torpedos over and over...(face in the water, arms straight, hands clapped together, legs kicking) with Mom holding on tight. "Mom, I love torpedos!" she said after we finally forced her to do it. Then when we were at Pirate's Cove with Scott, Elisha and Molly in Denver, everything clicked into place and she just started swimming, head in the water, coming up for breathes, and everything! Boy, was she ever happy. Thanks to Uncle Scott for spending tons of time helping her practice! Emily, you're amazing - we love you!
(If your computer is like mine you might need a couple minutes to download the slideshow. If the music stops and starts just push pause and wait a few minutes to let it download!)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Pirate's Cove was so much fun. We all loved the lazy river. Ryan loved the waterslides. All the kids loved the fast little slides... especially Megan. She is a crazy watergirl who isn't afraid of getting her face wet. She slid down the slides, went under the water, stood up and headed straight for another ride... all with her tongue sticking out! Crazy girl. Thanks, Scott and Elisha for taking us and being such great hosts while we were in town.

Home Sweet Home

Just thought I'd add a few pictures of the house. We are still a long ways from being done but we are getting a little more organized. The living room is the only room done! But here are some pictures of the progress! I'll add more pictures as we get more done.





The Kitchen


Katie and Emily's room upstairs


The living room


The garage- that's everything that we are going to keep in the garage... our house has so much storage that we found places for everything else inside.


The kids lockers on the other side of the garage. I think we will get doors for them... we didn't have room for doors in the last house but we do here.

The bonus room... so far. This is half of the bonus room actually. The other half is a mess of toys and boxes full of books etc.

The family room... no furniture yet. Chris just bought his new flatscreen. It's not centered and mounted yet. Do you think the size looks ok? and who's going to fly out here and help me with these shelves?... I haven't done anything yet.

Our first Sunday in Georgia

As we drove out of our little neighborhood headed for church I stopped and had the kids get out by the entrance of our subdivision for a picture. The kids were excited to go to church to "see who their new friends would be". When we pulled into the parking lot, Ryan looked at the building and said, "This looks exactly like our old church." Let's see, what gave it away, the brick or the steeple? Isn't it so nice that at least the building, the meetings and schedule are the same. Makes you feel right at home the minute you walk in the door. We reclaimed our usual row and I sat and looked around. The Crawfords weren't in front of us, the Danielsons and Seaquists weren't to the right. Megan looked around but couldn't find Gabriella behind us to the left. It was kindof depressing actually. The people all looked nice but none of them looked like OUR friends.

The kids were excited for primary. We went and found their classes and sat down while I filled in the paperwork that the excited Primary President handed me. Then I dropped Megan off at the nursery. As soon as I walked in the nursery grandma looked up and said, "Who's this?" I said, "This is Megan. We just moved in." The nursery grandma opened her arms and said, "Megan, come give me a hug. We are so excited to meet you. You have a beautiful bow. You look like a princess... Megan, let me introduce you to all of your friends..." Megan didn't look back. What a brilliant idea to have a grandma in the nursery. As I picked up the kids from primary at the end of the meetings I asked the kids who had the best primary class. 'I did", "No, I did" they yelled as they shot their arms in the air... including Megan. Looks like it was a succesful first Sunday after all.

Chris’ Mission–Arriving home to Salt Lake City

Well, I am finally back to writing in this journal. While on my mission, I used three other journals, but now I am back from my mission. In reading back, I was so excited to get out there on my mission because I had such high expectations of what my mission would do for me. Well, my mission exceeded every expectation and was much greater than I ever expected. It was seriously so awesome - the greatest time of my life.

I arrived home today. We woke up in Chicago and had plenty of time to get all ready and make the plane at 9:30. The plane ride was really fun, but that is when I got very nervous. My stomach did all kinds of twists and turns as we got close to Utah. Especially when I was able to look out and see the Salt Lake Valley. It was a great feeling to see home. When we landed, I was in no hurry to get off the plane so I let everyone else get off first. And even then I took my time. Then I let Mom and Dad go and I monied my way on out. I could hear Nikole and Ashlyn and Lindsey yelling for me to get my butt out there. And as I finally rounded the corner and could see everyone, that was enough wait for them and they sprinted down the plank an just ran into me. Ashlyn arrived first and went airborne into my arms. I just caught her and hugged her and the tears started flowing. I hugged Lindsey and Nikole also and they began dragon me up to the crowd of people waiting for me. So many loved ones were there and it was a joyous reunion. Most of my Polson relatives were there, many people from the ward, the Burrups, Liz and Michelle. It was really good to see everyone but it was weird at the same time. I didn’t know how to act. But I visited with everyone for a while and then we all started to file out. We drove home - I loved seeing the mountains and the streets and our house. I went on a tour of the house because a lot is different. It was exciting. Grandma and Grandpa Polson came over and we went out to lunch in Draper.

Home in Sandy

At about 5:00pm, we got hold of Stake President Newbold. He invited us over and the worst thing in my life took place. He released me as a missionary. It was really nice how he did it all. There was a good feeling in his home. He basically said, “I release you on behalf of the leadership of the Stake, the General Authorities, the Quorum of the Twelve, and the First Presidency. But most importantly, I release you on behalf of the Savior himself.” It was neat but I was just kind of in shock during it all. I couldn’t say much at all. I drove home with my parents in silence and felt so sad. I didn’t say a word and just went downstairs and started bawling. It was the worst feeling every. Dad came down and just gave me a hug which helped but I spent time alone for over 2 hours just pondering and going over my homecoming talk. It was a very emotional time but I had to get through it. It was so hard to take off my name tag, but it is done. I will miss my mission but it has made me who I am today and I will be forever grateful for it. This church is true, I know that more than anything else. My testimony has grown so much and is unshakeable now. I know that God lives, that Jesus Christ is his son and the Savior of the world. I feel it an honor an privilege. I love the work I was engaged in. There is nothing better. October 21, 1994

This was my homecoming and it was awesome. We had a record crowd. Ashlyn spoke first as the youth speaker. Dad spoke for a few minutes, and then I play the piano arrangement “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief”. I played it better than I every have - no flaws. Then I gave my homecoming report. I spoke for over 35 minutes but I think it was very good. Everyone told me what a great job I did. I really felt confident and I felt good about what I shared with everyone. It was a good experience, but it was hard to see that it is really over. This was the final part of my mission. It is really over. Everyone came over to the house and I had a wonderful time visiting with everyone. It was very nice to see and visit with all of these people that I haven’t known for two years. It was great to be with my friends and family again. This morning, I also reported my mission to the High Council and Stake Presidency. That was a treat as well. Missions are such a great experience. From start to finish, it has been the greatest time of my life. I will miss it so much. I wish I could go back because it is definitely better than home life. The greatest work in the world, over for now. October 23, 1994