Calton Clan

2010-12-19T16:03:00.000-08:00

This is Amy in her cheerleader Christmas dance at the North Sevier boys basketball game.

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T16:31:00.001-07:00

Happy Mother's Day Everyone!

I started the day helping Amy deliver these flowers. The flowers were for a cheerleading fundraiser. We delivered 18 flowers. I think I was the only one who had 4 flowers. Thanks for supporting your sister kids. Zach's flower said, "It's all your fault my life is so great!" My kids also gave me real flowers. Thank you kids! Your great.
I usually don't like to go to sacrament meeting on Mother's Day because I feel guilty for not being a great mother but this year was different. Whitney's Sunday school class spoke and they were all very honest and funny. The Primary kids sang and the younger kids had flower face masks. That is one of the things I loved about Primary, wearing the flowers masks and singing for our mother's. Josh thought I was crazy but I loved it. Whitney read a poem in her talk. She told me after the meeting that she had written it for me. Thank you Whitney! Thank you to all my kids. It has been a great Mother's Day.

Whitney's Poem:

Mom

She taught me how to run and walk
She taught me how to pray and talk
She taught me how to give and share
She taught me how to love and care

She taught me how to read and write
She taught me how to fly a kite
She taught me how to love the Lord
She taught me what to do when bored

She is the one I look up to
The one I want to be like
The one who will do anything with me
Even go on a very long hike

My mother is an angel
Sent from up above
The women who through thick and thin
Will always have my love

The First 25 Years

2010-05-09T15:37:00.000-07:00

Has it really been 25 years? Time flies when you are having fun! Jim and I celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary on April 23rd. Our kids got us a room at the Anniversary Inn. We stayed in the Enchanted Forest room. I can now say I have slept in a tree. Thank you kids! It was a lot of fun.

Josh made a video (see the link below) and posted it on youtube as a present to us and as an assignment for his digital media class. (Way to multi task Josh. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUNySOb9lNs

Michael's Play

2010-04-18T21:26:00.001-07:00

This year Michael did the play Aladdin. He had fun and played Jafar's parrot Iago. They did great!

The boy playing Jafar is Michael's friend on the far left. He is only about a head taller than him, but Michael swears he is a giant.

Michael put LOTS of character into his part.

2010-04-18T21:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have been trying to find the SD card that these pictures were on and finally found them. Here are the pictures of Whitney's first date. It was a Western themed dance as you can see.

This is her whole group.

In Honor Of Whitney's First Date

2010-03-31T21:09:00.000-07:00

Whitney had her first date last week and is on her second date tonight (with a different guy).
In her honor I found this poem. :)

A Short Love Poem
by Judith Vorst (changed a little by mom)

It's hard to love
The tallest guy
When you're the shortest girl,
For every time
You try to look
Your true love in the eye,
You see...his bellybutton.

2010-03-14T14:43:00.000-07:00

With a foot of snow this is what Whitney, Michael, and Josh did for two hours. It only fits one person, but you can sit up in it. Its suppose to be sixty degrees this next week and then snow again this weekend. The Joys of living in Utah!

My Stoker Family

2010-02-18T21:48:00.001-08:00

Books

2009-10-20T07:48:00.001-07:00

I called Cedar Fort Press and they told me I could sell the books for a reduced price. If you want any they are $6.00 from me instead of $11.99 from their website.

Stand As An Example

2009-10-18T22:04:00.000-07:00

If any of you are frequent readers of Jim's Facebook you may have heard that I have a book/calendar with my name on it. I can't really say I wrote it because I just put together what other people have written.

It all started last year when I was looking for a Christmas present for the Young Women in our ward. I have been the Young Women's President for the last 7 years. We had given the girls socks, candy, Cd's, Christmas ornaments and all the other usual presents. It was time for something new.

The girls had used President Hinckley's book "Stand a Little Taller" for our opening exercises. It was a little bit hard for them to understand sometimes so I thought a book like that on their level would be a great gift. I thought I would just whip one up in time for Christmas. I could copy it on colored paper and put the plastic spiral binding on it. It wouldn't be as nice as President Hinckley's book but you can't do too much on a limited budget.

It didn't happen. I started, but it took way longer than I thought it would. The girls got socks again, but they were cute fuzzy ones this time :)

I decided if I gave myself enough time I could get the project done by the next Christmas. This time I started in February. After looking at quotes until my eyes went blurry, I decided that I didn't want some cheesy looking book to give to the girls. I just didn't think they would take it serious. I had looked for something like this in the LDS bookstores before I started and I knew there wasn't anything like it out there. I had this bazaar thought that somebody might just be interested in publishing it. I called and e-mailed Deseret Book but they didn't ever call or e-mail back. (I recently saw a quote book for Young Women published by Deseret Book so that is probably why they were not interested in my book.) I contacted Cedar Fort Press and they actually took me serious and sent me a contract to write the book but they wanted the completed manuscript in 30 days. A negotiated a little bit more time and finally sent them the complete manuscript in the middle of July. I didn't hear back from them so I wasn't sure if they were going to publish it or not. They weren't obligated because I didn't have the manuscript done in time but I was still hoping they would be able to at least print enough books for me to give to my Young Women for Christmas.

Last week I was checking my e-mail and had a message from UPS. I wasn't expecting a package so I thought is was a junk e-mail and almost deleted it. I thought twice and opened it up to find out I was getting an 8 lb. package from Cedar Fort Press. Could it be my book??? I went to their website on-line and there it was under new releases. I hadn't seen their version of the book at all and it was different from mine but I thought it was kind of cute.

The title is "Stand As An Example" so I wanted to have girly shoes on the cover and on the background in the book. I also wanted to have quotes from President Monson and Sister Dalton but Deseret Book has exclusive rights to publish anything from living church leaders. It's not exactly what I dreamed of but I am thankful they published it and I don't have to worry about what I am going to give our Young Women this year for Christmas. Oops, hopefully none of our Young Women read my blog :)

Fall Fun

2009-10-18T21:30:00.000-07:00

We had Family Night at Hansen's Pumpkin Patch in Elsinore this week. He went on a "straw ride", Whitney and Jim were both glad it wasn't hay (haaaa-choo). We had a hard time picking just one pumpkin so we got a few extra. Stay tuned for the results of our annual family pumpkin carving contest...

Salina Cross Country Girls Are Going To State

2009-10-18T21:04:00.000-07:00

Whitney, Amy and the rest of the North Sevier Girls Cross Country team are going to the 2A State competition on Wednesday, October 21st. They will be running from Sugarhouse Park to Highland High School. The race will start at 12:30 pm. Good luck girls!!!!! You will do great!

Another Race

2009-10-18T20:49:00.000-07:00

Amy found another race that she thought would be great for the three of us to run in. The race was from the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to the Jordon River Temple. It was five miles long but all down hill so it wasn't too bad. The race started at 7:00 am and we had to check in at 6:30 am. We started running just as the sun was coming up. It was so cool to stand on the top of the hill and look at all three glowing temples at once. That experience alone was worth waking up at 5:00 and running five miles. The race was a fundraiser for the Christmas Box house for abused children so it was for a good cause. Thank you Ang and Mike for picking us up at the end of the race, taking pictures, bringing us water and other treats and supporting us! We love you both!!

I Can't Believe I Did It

2009-09-22T19:46:00.001-07:00

BRYCE CANYON RIM RUN

Whitney and Amy have been running on the high school cross country team. When I heard they were going to Bryce Canyon for a race I thought it would be fun to go and watch them. Whitney thought it would be a great idea for me to run with them because the race was not just for high school teams, it was for everybody. I have always had a goal to run in a 5K (3 miles), but this race was 5 miles. We all survived and each one of us took second place in our age division. We are already planning for next year. If anyone would like to join us let us know. Here is the link to the official results if you care to look. For some reason they have Whitney listed as being from Arizona but she still lives with us :).

http://www.runnercard.com/runner/data/1827/2100/Result/Womens_5_Mile_Run.htm

Glenn Beck At the Capital

2009-06-26T20:19:00.000-07:00

Glenn Beck At the Capital

I try to stay away from politics but Jim and I had an opprotunity to see Glenn Beck at the state capital. It was a black tie event so I consider it the prom I never went to. We had a great time and Glenn Beck was even interesting even though he did talk about politics. At dinner I sat next to the wife of a man Jim works with. Her name is Annette also. I asked her where she was from and found out she was from Lehi. She graduated with Marvin. Her husband, the guy Jim works with graduated with me. I thought he looked kind of familiar :), but we don't actually remember each other. It is a small world.

Class of 2009

2009-05-24T14:51:00.001-07:00

Emily is graduating on Friday, May 29, 2009. The graduation will be held at the North Server High School (Salina) at 8:00 p.m. Anyone who who would like to come is invited.

You are also invited to eat dinner with us at the Salina park at 6:00 p.m. We will be having Subway sandwiches, chips and salads. Please let me know if you are planning to eat with us so I can make sure we have enough food.

Amy also has 8th grade graduation the same day at 9:30 a.m.

Emily is 18!!!

2009-03-22T20:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Emily

I wanted to document the whole day in pictures but Emily didn't cooperate very well. I started the day by waking her up and taking her to breakfast at Denny's but they wouldn't sing to her because it was Valentine's and they were too busy. Happy birthday Emily! We love you!!!

(Just in case you didn't notice my last three blogs are not in chronological order)

Too Much Twilight

2009-03-22T20:01:00.001-07:00

Whitney meets Edward.

(She wishes.)

If you can't tell the picture on the cake is Whitney's face.

Happy Birthday Whitney

I don't know how but Whitney talked me into letting her have a birthday party!

This is her friends at Pizza Hut.

Bugsy Malone

2009-03-22T19:46:00.000-07:00

Amy and Micheal were in the middle school play. It was really cute. Amy played Tallulah and Micheal played Tootle. Micheal was killed in the third scene but he made a great come back as an angel in the last scene. Amy had to walk into the audience and kiss somebody on the cheek during her solo. The first night she kissed a 10 year old boy, the second night she kissed her swim coach and the third night she kissed Whitney's old boyfriend. A picture of Amy kissing Bugsy Malone was on the front page of the Salina Sun last week. The last time any of our kids made the front page was when Zach kissed a girl in the high school play. Warning to my kids: You don't kiss anybody and not expect the whole town to know about it.

Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan

2009-01-19T19:42:00.000-08:00

Matthew is at the Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan.

This is a letter we got from him last week:

It is not to bad here. I didn't know that it snows here, but we got about 2'' not to long ago. I almost feel at home here because the weather is about the same and there are mountains all around me. The only difference is that here everyone is in uniform and it is never quiet because of all the jets.

On His Way To Saint Croix

2008-12-26T10:42:00.000-08:00

Josh called on Christmas. It was great to hear his voice. He will be flying to Saint Croix (Virgin Islands) on Friday, December 26th.

Matt In Afganistan

2008-12-26T10:37:00.000-08:00

Matt sent an email yesterday. He made it safely to Afghanistan. His message was short but it was a relief to hear from him. We will be praying for you Matt. Keep in touch.

Our Family Picture

2008-12-16T21:00:00.000-08:00

I really wanted a family picture this year but one of my kids wouldn't cooperate. So this is it. Whitney is holding a missionary nutcracker to represent Josh and Michael is holding soldier doll to represent Matthew. I got the nutcracker and the doll for my birthday. Our next family picture is scheduled for October 2010. The Calton kids better start planning now because they are all going to be in it this time. It will be my graduation and 25th anniversary present.

Matt Is Leaving On Friday

2008-12-16T20:45:00.000-08:00

Matt is leaving for Afghanistan (not Iraq) on Friday, December 19, 2008. His phone number is 520-449-4749 if anybody would like to call him before he leaves. He promised me he would be home in May for Emily's graduation.

Locks of Love

2008-11-22T15:58:00.001-08:00

Whitney donated 11 inches of hair to Locks of Love.

Whitney has been thinking about getting her hair cut because it gets in the way at basketball. Yesterday she did it. She loves it! It made her feel better to be able to donate it to Locks of Love. The lady that cut her hair said the donation was worth $100 and inch. She has been growing it out for five years so I told her it would count as a Personal Progress goal. I'm sure somewhere it will brighten a child's life. Way to go Whit!

Twilight

2008-11-22T15:32:00.000-08:00

Calton Girls and Ang

All dressed up and ready for the midnight showing of Twilight.

Yes, we are crazy but doing crazy things makes life memorable. The movie was great if you just wanted to stare at good looking guys for two and a half hours. If you want dialogue or plot go see something else. If you don't read the books before you see the movie you probably won't understand anything. Edward spends a lot of time just staring at Bella. He may be able to read peoples minds but most of us don't have the same advantage. We were an hour and a half early but the only seats that were left were on the fourth row. The audience was pretty calm except for us. I think Whitney and Ang were the only ones in the audience screaming. It was great fun to be with my girls and Ang. I would do it again just to spend time with them. Thanks girls. How many days until the next movie Whit?

Iraq Again

2008-11-18T21:42:00.000-08:00

I promised Ang I would update my blog so here it is without pictures.

When Matthew didn't come home for Josh's farewell he promised he would be here for Christmas but he is going to Iraq instead. Of course he can't give us any details because everything is top secret but he did say he leaves sometime in December.

Josh got to Puerto Rico and all is well but only spoken is Spanish. I will post his letter and new address on his blog.

Whitney was chosen as student of the month at the high school. She was excited. She was nominated every year in middle school but never got it so it is about time they picked her. She will also be playing on the high school basketball team. Her games will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Emily and Amy are busy with dance. They will have a Christmas performance sometime in December.

We need to find Michael a hobby that does not involve technology. It will be good for him when swim team starts again. I wish Salina had an indoor pool so they could have swim team all year.

Zach needs to start his own blog so we can keep up on his news. So get one Zach, and update better than your mom does hers.

Jim is taking computer classes in hopes of becoming the next network specialist at Redmond Minerals.

I just found out I have taken way to many of the wrong classes for the wrong major. You think they could have told me this a little sooner but I sure feel smart ;P It will only take me two more years to finish my degree which should have only taken two years in the first place.

Twilight in only how many days? I'm not sure ask Whitney, but I know it is getting close and I am looking forward to watching it with my girls and missing a day of work.

Pumpkins

2008-10-30T21:26:00.000-07:00

Amy and Michael carved pumpkins for youth council for decorations for their dance and we didn't get a picture of them. Michael's was a cat and Amy's was a Witch, but she took my Twilight one instead. The pumpkins were judged and Michael's won first place and Amy/Whitney's won most original. Since they didn't get to bring them home I made another one and here it is.

Love,

Whitney

Elder Calton

2008-10-05T06:36:00.000-07:00

I didn't want to put all of Josh's updates on our family blog because it might look like I am playing favorites, so I made Josh his own blog. (Thank you for your help Whitney.) Josh will not be able to post on the blog or read it but we will post pictures and some of his letters so that the family can stay updated.

Josh left the Provo MTC on Thursday. He will be in the Dominican Republic MTC until November 11. I do not have a current address but his email address is:

joshua.l.calton@myldsmail.net

If you go to this web site you can write a letter and they will print it and send it to Josh. This is free while he is in the Dominican Republic MTC.

http://www.dearelder.com/

Trip Up North

2008-10-05T05:57:00.000-07:00

When we moved to Salina I hated it when people would say "Up North". It think it sounds so hillbilly but after almost nine years I sometimes find myself using the term. The girls and I went up north last week. Emily wanted to go to the BASH concert with Zach because her favorite band was going to be there. I have never let her go before because I didn't think it was a very good environment. This year she really wanted to go and she is almost 18. I thought if I drove her up and back it would make me feel a little better about the whole thing. Amy and Whitney and I stayed at Ang and Mike's while Zach, Emily and Katie (Emily's friend) went to the concert. We all went to Gardner Village on Friday night to see the witches. We had a great time at Ang's making jewelry, it was kind of therapeutic

Wearing our new jewelry

Zach's new roommate

Zach's new apartment in Taylorsville

Busy, Busy

2008-09-14T15:52:00.000-07:00

Okay, I don't know how some of you keep up with your Blogs every week. I have had a busy summer so please forgive me. From now on I will post something every week even if nothing exciting happens. I think I have everything updated now but I did leave out a few things. Michael received his Arrow of Light in August and Whitney has been playing on the high school soccer team. (See Pictures) Emily and Amy have started taking dance and Zach moved into a new apartment. Matthew was deployed to Texas for a couple of days to help with the hurricanes but it blew right over them so he didn't do much. AHHHHHH I think I finally have everything updated. Have a great week.

MTC

2008-09-14T15:28:00.000-07:00

MTC does not stand for Mother's Torture Chamber but somebody did tells us that the missionaries sometimes refer to it has spirit prison. Josh will soon find out. We dropped him off on Wednesday, September 10. I was the only one who cried. The kids were trying not to cheer too loudly. He has tortured them so much in the past week that they were ready for him to leave. I think Josh did this on purpose so they would cry when he left. We haven't heard from him since we dropped him off so he must be busy. For those who would like to write him his address is:

Elder Joshua Calton

MTC Mailbox #340

PUR-SJUE 1002

2005 N. 900 E.

Provo, Utah 84604-1793

He will be there until October 2. Most missionaries who are learning a language stay there longer so I think he will probably go tot the MTC in the Dominican Republic after he leaves Provo.

Lake Powell

2008-09-14T15:17:00.000-07:00

Redmond Minerals has started sending all employees and their spouses to Lake Powell each year for a company training meeting. Our trip last year got cancelled so we were really excited to go this year. The weather was perfect and we had a great time. We had a great time swimming and boating and it was nice to relax in an air conditioned house boat when we were done. I am already looking forward to next year.

Josh's Missionary Farewell

2008-09-14T15:00:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everybody who came to Josh's farewell. It went great and we had enough food to feed the Army which is what we were planning on but Josh's army friends got called to a mandatory army meeting at the last minute and only a couple of them were able to make it. It was great to have so many family member there. Josh really appreciates all of your support.

Salt Lake Temple

2008-09-14T14:52:00.000-07:00

Josh went through the Salt Lake temple on August 20th. It was great to have Aunt Gini and Grandma and Grandpa Stoker with us.

Girl's Camp

2008-09-14T14:44:00.001-07:00

Thank you for all your Girl's Camp ideas. Girl's Camp was great. Out theme was Steadfast Like the Stars and we had Amy's science teacher come to camp with a telescope. The sky was perfect and we got to see Jupiter through the telescope. It looked just like it does in pictures. I can't believe how many stars you can see in the mountain sky. The girls were great!

2008-09-14T14:19:00.000-07:00

Driving for 12 hours with seven people in a van didn't turn out so bad even though two of the girls had PMS. It was great to see Matt. He lives in a little apartment by himself and spends most of his day working on airplanes. He didn't get out much because he didn't have a car so we helped him get one while we were there. We stayed at a great place. It was a condo on a golf course. We got a great price because nobody wants to visit Arizona in July when it is 110 degrees. What were we thinking? We were all amazed by the cactus. There were so many everywhere. It was kind of like sagebrush in Utah. I think next time we visit we will go in the winter. WE LOVE YOU MATT!

Thank You

2008-07-21T21:50:00.000-07:00

Thank you for all your great comments and ideas about girl's camp. Our girl's camp will be July 30, 31 and August 1 so if you think of anymore wonderful ideas before then let me know. Our theme is Steadfast Like the Stars so we are looking for any quotes, craft ideas or stories that are associated with stars. Thank you for all of your help.

Have a great day!
Love,
Annette

Keep On Treking

2008-07-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

Jim, Emily, Whitney and I participated in our stake youth trek this past week along with 110 other youth and adults from our stake. We pushed handcarts for 20 miles over three days and slept under the stars. I really gained more of an appreciation of the things the pioneers had to go through. The road was a four wheeler trial so we did see a few "civilized" people along the way. A group of ATV riders saw us and wondered what all these Pilgrims were doing. Emily said that people were probably wondering what the polygamists were doing on vacation. We were all sore when we got home and glad to take a shower but I think it was a great experience we will never forget.

Girls Camp Ideas?

2008-07-13T22:42:00.000-07:00

Hey, all you girls and former young women. What is your most memorable girl's camp experience? I am trying to think of some wonderful, fun ideas for our girl's camp at the end of the month and I need your ideas. I also need ideas for cute handouts and sayings. Thank you, Have a great day, Annette

What's New?

2008-07-05T22:45:00.000-07:00

Jim- Passed his EMT test and is now a certified EMT. (I will try not to get to upset when the pager wakes me up at 2:00 am)

Annette (me)- Getting ready for the pioneer trek and girls camp in July.

Zach- Loves his job at Verizon and adopted a little green friend (iguana)

Josh- Should be seeing clearly by the time he leaves on his mission in September. He had surgery on Wednesday for a detached retina

Matt- Up to his old tricks (some things never change). During a room inspection the inspectors found bottles Matt had taped together(because he was bored) and thought they were bombs. After bringing the bomb dogs in to check things out the inspectors finally decided Matt was harmless.

Emily- We always know where she is either at work or with Logan.

Whitney- Had fun at Summer Games in Ceder City and is still swimming strong.

Amy- Wants to move to Forks, Washington in hopes to get kissed by a Vampire (If you don't understand this you might want to read Twilight).

Michael- Did a cute little dance when he received a second place in the Freestyle at the Summer Games.

Josh is home!!

2008-06-05T22:29:00.000-07:00

Josh is home. We picked him up at the military airport in Salt Lake on May 28th. It was the same day and airport that President Bush came to 40 minutes after Josh. I wanted to stay at the airport and see the President but Josh just wanted a steak at Ruby River. I don't think they would have let us see the President anyway. It's good to have him home and safe. He plans on taking a lot of long road trips on his new motorcycle. (He may have been safer in Iraq.) :)

2007-11-11T13:16:00.000-08:00

Calton Family News

2007-11-11T12:41:00.000-08:00

Jim-Still works at Redmond Minerals. The kids think he is always there. It is not true. Sometimes he is at the church.

Annette-Is enjoying her new job at the hospital day care. She is always there but hopes to be able to spend more time with the family after she hires two new people this week.

Zach-Has works full time at TDS tires. He is certified to do safety inspections and has developed a six pack from lifting 150 lb tires everyday. In his spare time he paints the weather truck. (We call it that because the color changes as fast as the Utah weather.)

Josh-Is in camp Bucca, Iraq. He was going to come home for Christmas but he traded with somebody who had a wife and kids -awwwww he really is a softy even though he doesn't want anybody to know. He sits in a guard tower and watches a prison which holds 30,000 prisoners. He does have a little excitement each time there is a riot but I would rather have him bored and safe.

Matthew-Is in Texas. He will be coming home for Christmas if we can get him a ticket soon. He will be deployed to Africa in July. He is having fun working on airplanes and gets excited when he sits in the pilot seat or gets to walk along the top of the plane.

Emily-Spends all her time working at Subway. She takes after her parents. She got a cell phone and can text almost 300 words a minute :)

Whitney-Has been playing volleyball. Her team lost every game but beat the undefeated team last week so they will be in the final tournament this week.

Amy-Reads, reads, and when she finishes she reads some more. She has read the Harry Potter series twice but has made a goal to read 50 books before she reads the series again. Amy is proud of her report card because it is better than Whitney's. They both got straight A's but Amy has all H's (Whitney likes to talk).

Michael-Plays with Legos when he isn't in school. He misses Josh and Matt and even admits he misses the teasing.