Koral pierced her ear! 08.13

I've been waiting all my life to take my little girl to get her ears pierced! Koral didn't cry, scream, moan...she said that stings, and nothing more. Very brave. She loves her earrings...she's all girl!

Koral and her cousin Brynlee (Michelle's little girl)...again, what's wrong with this picture?

Logan Utah 08.09

After the Wiberg reunion we headed up to Logan Utah to hang out with Kirk's family for a couple of days. His brother Eric has a nice boat and a near by dam, with some dam fish in it, and this dam waterskier. Kirk rocked it for a while after not having skied for 15 years. He rocked it until he cracked it, a rib that is. Trying to spray he took a big fall and slammed into the ski. The pansie needed to come into the boat and took the rest of the morning off. Then he moaned about it for the next three weeks.

Korbin was a daredevil and was up and going on the knee board within a couple tries. We tried the double skies but they were too big and he could keep them straight up in the water.

Even Ethan had fun, although its a bit out of his nature to get crazy in the water. He and his cousin just took a nice leisurely stroll in the tube.

Kirk starts them young. Our boys love to go to Oma and Opa's (Grandma and Grandpa) Derr's home because of all the great toys. Only once did a cop pull Kirk over and tell him he needed to put helmets on the boys. Kirk spends all afternoon giving rides.

Family Reunion Cont'd 08.08

Grandma Wiberg (Mel's mom) with some of Koral's cousins. My big brothers family planned a great lunch for us on the lawn at the church. All the cousins were divided into four groups, and each had a specific assingment and $2 per person. One group was in charge of fruit, one sandwhiches, one drinks and chips, one deserts. The two stores in the town were only 1/2 block away so we could watch them, and each group had an older cousin. They came back with a lot of fun things and then the kids made the adults lunch.

HAving a party at the Coalsville rodeo and fair! I wanted to puke just watching this.

I'm sorry, but this couldn't be cuter! What a bunch of heartbreakers these three are. Can you have sex appeal at such a young age...isn't that wrong?

Kirk taught them what to do when a boy comes over to them!

Mel's side family reunion 08.08

Let's get ready for the pie eating contest...whoo hooo. Field looks like a few pansies and maybe one or two heavy hitters. We'll see...

Wiberg family reunion was hosted by Mels big brother Brent. Not one person was missing this year and we all met up in Coalsville where Brent lived at the time (has since moved). Some of us camped, and some of us camped in the hotel.

As suspected, some did little more than push the pudding around with their noses and others inhaled. Korbin took 2nd to his much bigger cousin in the orange...but it came down to the last 10 seconds so Korbin lived up to his reputation in our home of eating like a teenager...his motto is "if you can find a bigger fork and give me bigger lips I'd shove the whole plate in at one time!"

Mom, do princesses wear beards?

Mom doesn't let these kinds of shinanigans go on at home!

Korbin B-day #9 07.11

Breakfast in bed on July 11, the regular request. These are german oven pancakes we shaped to form his favorite letter. Korbin loves Dallas and has been able to gain confidence from doing what's right. Some kids at school were telling rumors and naughty jokes and Korbin refused to be a part of it.

Kirk constantly gets requested to put up the ladder so the kids can climb into their favorite little cubby above the front door. Korbin reads up there for hours. Here Korbin dragged Teage up...why do I let such dangerous things go on. Must be my fourth child!

We're HERE! Good warm Dallas 07.02.08

Just two days from unpacking, we took part in a parade for kids on the 4th of July. We live in Flower Mound, part of Dallas metro, or the Dallas Fort Worth area. Flower Mound is considered North DFW, and about 30 minutes from downtown Dallas without traffic. We were welcomed with open arms into the neighborhood, were unloaded within an hour it seemed, with a lot of help including from our new bishop. Kirk tried to give the driver of our UBF tralier a book of mormon which I was proud of him for. We have a member of the church just a few houses down from us and that has made such a difference as she knocked on our door having been anticipating our arrival for weeks.

We actually have neighbor kids that we are not scared to let our kids play with! They are wonderful! The location couldn't be better. We are a block from the High School, a half block from Sonic (oh yeah!!! Can you say happy hour!) and Chick-fil-A, couple blocks from the grocery store...I mean this location is to die for. Our community doesn't have a pool, so most of our neighbors do, and they are always inviting us over so needless to say, there wasn't too many days during the summer when the kids weren't swimming.

The first picture inside our new home. Teage posing as a drunken jailhouse brawler. You can see our game room behind him. I'm not sure we'll be able to fill it with much furniture beyond what you see now for quite some time.

Kirk wanted to blog this, what a dumb picture. These were most of the boxes we used, with the 12 garbage bags full of paper. He sold all these on Craigslist for $200 and then gave the money to me and said "don't tell me what you do with it." He's a sweetie. Everyone in our ward keeps saying that they have never seen furniture packed as well as ours was. Kirk just tells them it's because we knew the Elders were going to unload us!

The last goodbye to Michigan 06.27.08

It's hard to say goodbye to such good friends. We will miss so many from Michigan and will always be close to them. We were all in similar circumstances, poor student families married to high achievers. Kirk was upset at himself for not getting more pictures...you know how it is, that final day just seems to come to quick and then you have plans to say goodbye to everyone and you don't get to...

Melanie drove the Van... with it's engine light always on, its cracked windshield, the window that won't roll down, and 180k miles...it's like the heavyweight fighter from yesteryear...still a threat but being in the ring is mostly for show. Kirk drove the Honda, which is like a 60 year old porn star, thinks its all that but people secretly laugh at it. It was a great trip to Dallas. We took three days, stayed in hotels, did a lot of swimming, and just reveled in the beautiful countryside.

We will miss Michigan. The friends, the trees, the seasons, the fall...oh the fall colors!! Okay, I'm starting to tear up, so I better move on to the next post.

The Sacred Grove 06.23.08

As you can see behind us, as we stand facing the Palmyra temple, the church cleared a few trees so that a clear vision to the sacred grove could be seen by those visiting the temple. The celestial room has a clear window, the only such temple in the world, that allows the exact same view to the grove.



In Palmyra township is a small cemetery where the Smith's buried Alvin. The church improved his grave stone, as at the time they could only afford an engraved flat stone to mark his grave.

This is the E.B. Grandin press where the Book of Mormon was first published. The tour was very nice, and of course, we met someone that knew someone we knew...it's always a small world...

It was a special moment for our family to be here at the sacred grove. There is a small ampitheater in the grove that youth groups will come for firesides. We went as a family and bore our testimonies to each other. According the missionaries, there are seven "witness trees," or trees old enough to have been alive during the First Vision. We wish we could have known this before we went through so we could have had our eyes on the lookout for old trees. The original Smith farm covered 100 acres, and the grove itself is now very small. However, there are many stories of how this particular grove of trees was never cleared. There is little doubt that this was the spot.

Hill Commorah...06.23.08

I am slowly getting us up to current on our blog. This was our last trip just before moving from Ann Arbor, MI, to Dallas, TX. We had the place to ourselves which was nice. When you look at pictures you just don't get the sense that this is a hill, described by Joseph Smith as the most elevated in the area. However, when you walk to the top, you realize that the trees are deceptive in the pictures. This is very much a hill. You'll see our stroller at the top...well, Kirk had to take it back down and even he was nervous because it was so steep...he kept having visions of losing the stroller and seeing Teage race to the bottom without him. We had a wonderful visit with the missionaries in the visitor center and the spirit was wonderful here.

Niagara Falls!

Just before moving from Michigan we took a trip to Palmyra NY and stopped at Niagara Falls along the way. Kirk came here as a boy but much has changed since then. It's a pretty big tourist attraction, but the hotel was great, the food not so, and the family beautiful!