Can you believe it is November. Where has the year gone. Since we have an extra hour this morning, I thought I would be the first to send my blog for the month. We are really excited for November. It will be an exciting month with a missionary, a wedding, and Thanksgiving. I hope all goes well especially for Steve and Lynette's family. WOW!!

It was fun getting together for General Conference. We had a house full. I hope it wasn't too crazy for Brittany and her friends. It was nice they could come.

For the past two months Grandma Hancock has been in a nursing home. She is unable to care for herself. Some days she just sleeps. and on others she will get up for a while. On the 12th, Dad and his sisters and brother went to Grandma Hancock's house to clean it out and get it ready to sell. He spent all day, and they were able to get it all done. He brought some interesting things home that you all will have to look at when you are here. It was pretty hard on him. They did have some help from some of Don and Velda's kids.

I went to an Orthopedic Surgeon the other day and he told me I need to have both of my knees replaced. (Does that mean I'm old or what?) I told him I was not ready to do that so he suggested the TOSH program that Intermountain Healthcare provides. They teach you how to strenthen and stretch the areas that are so painful, and also the things to eat that might help the pain. I had my first appointment with them last week. It was quite interesting. I was there for two and a half hours. We talked a lot about my symptoms, the physical therapist did some measurements on how far I can bend my legs, and then we did exercises. I was pretty tired when it was all done. The good news is that by the end of the session I was able to bend my knees more than at the beginning. So, I am hopeful that the exercises will help. Now I just have to do the work at home. It takes a lot of time. I am willing to give it a try because I really don't want to have surgery.

Dad has been busy taking care of the churches. The other day he had to clean a blackboard that someone had written pornography on. They had also trashed the church by throwing things all over the place. I don't know what it wrong with people. He keeps wanting to retire. He is tired of the phone calls and all the problems. He hopes that maybe in a year that might happen.

We went to Kelsey's soccer game in the state tournament. It was really cool watching the girls play. They are really good. They were able to win the first game, but lost the second. The team that took State (Timpanogas, I think) Lehi had beat before. So, I guess that makes them almost the State champions. Congratulations Lehi Girl's Soccer.

I hope all of you will send your news. We really enjoy hearing about the things thats happening in your lives. We love you and miss you. It will be fun to all be together in November. We are so happy Darrin and Kim will be able to make it as well. Take care. Love you all, Mom and Dad.

Better Late than Never

Wow, what a busy month.  We are experiencing for the first time having a child playing soccer.  You have the games, and the practices.  I can’t imagine it with several kids at the same time.  We have enjoyed going to Josh’s practices and games.  Josh has been taking after his dad and dominating the sport, its fun to see how excited they get when they score a goal. 

  

Josh also started kindergarten this past month.  He is  adjusting well and it is fun to see all the stuff he is learning.  We just had our first parent teacher conference and his teacher said Josh is doing great and is a nice kid and nice to his classmates.  Andrew started pre-school and is becoming quite the big boy.  It is relieving to see him overcoming some of his shyness.  There primary program is coming up so we are hoping he will be brave enough to do his part. 

  Josh also started riding his bike and within little time he was driving across the park, going off the curb, and going fast.  We were expecting that he would just be content going slowly up and down our street, but I guess boys need something more interesting.  Josh also decided to grow up and lose his teeth.  He has lost one and has another just dangling there as the new tooth is growing in already.   We need Grandpa near by to pull it out.

Andrew had his 4th B-day this past month.  He had a lot of fun getting a bunch of cool presents from family and friends.  He went to out of this world pizza for his birthday dinner.  He was really sweet about sharing his presents with his brothers and enjoyed the time playing with them while his brother was at school.  He wanted a Wii cake for his b-day and we attempted to make one.  He liked it and thought it was cool, so I guess that is what counts.  We definitely won’t be winning any cake decorating contests.

Andrew insisted that he had Jell-O for his Birthday.

Luke is still keeping us busy.  He is quite the busy body and a very curious little boy.  It is really starting to communicate and is getting really good with sign language.  He likes doing the same things as his brothers, especially when they rough house with their dad.  He is a lot of fun and we are just enjoying his delight in the world around him.

Kim remains busy taking care of kids, teaching, and volunteering at the school.  She just got a new assistant to help her as a Den leader.  They finally called someone that would help and not be a burden.  Kim is thoroughly enjoying her new assistant and all the help she is giving her with the scouts. Kim has been going a lot on girls nights outs and having fun with her friends.  Darrin keeps trying to get her to stay home and have fun with him, but I guess she doesn’t think Darrin is all that fun.

Darrin is trying to be young again and be busy with sports and being active.  This past week Darrin played in two soccer games and ran a 5k.  The 5k was one for Intel employees so Darrin tried to get Mike and Chad to run also.  Chad claimed to be injured and couldn’t run, but Mike took the challenged and whooped Darrin real good.  Darrin’s excuse was he had a soccer game the night before which drained him of all the super fast energy he needed to beat Mike.  Darrin is anticipating next year to hopefully beat both Mike and Chad.

Well that is probably more than you wanted to hear about us.  Sorry we have been terrible thus far.  We will repent and do better.

Love,
  Darrin, Kim, Josh, Andrew, Luke

Dear Family, Last summer on one of our get togethers, we had a watermelon for desert that esculated into a watermelon seed spitting contest. Well this summer we saw a plant growing in Mom's herb garden. In the later part of August the plant started to grow melons. Yesterday I picked the first of the melons, it was hugh!! I took it in the house to see how big it was. When I weighed it, it was 22.5 lbs.

That was Dad's contribution to the Blog. Sorry we didn't send anything last month. I was having a hard time figuring out this new-fangled system. We'll see if it works this time. It has been really fun reading the news from Brittany/Jason and Kaylie. I hope more of the grand children will let us know the happenings in their lives. Those of you who haven't blogged yet, get with it!!

Nothing too exciting has been going on with us. We are quite old and boring. It has been fun to have Brittany L in Utah and to be able to spend some time with their family. In August we helped Dona move to her new digs. I hope she writes about her new apartment, and living all by herself. She needed some furniture, so we gave her the chairs that were in our livingroom. It was a good excuse to get some new furniture. (I had been wanting some since we moved in five years ago.)

Jared was in a dance concert in September. If was fun going back to campus and seeing the program. He did really good as usual. I hope all of us get to see him dance before he's finished.

Every week after Cub Scouts we complain about how old we are. The boys are starting to progress, and that makes it worth while. Dad isn't as old as me though. The other day after Scouts he challenged the boys. We had gone about two blocks from the church to pick up garbage for a service project. He said he could beat them back to the church. Only one boy beat him, but he paid for it the next day. That old competitive spirit just comes out.

I helped with the election for Mayor and City Councilmen. It was really sad. Only about 6 percent came out to vote in the primary. I hope all of you take advantage of our freedoms and be good citizens and vote.

We are so excited for Natan and Kaylie. We hope all goes well for them. We love all of you and hope all is well in your lives. We hope to see you soon. Love The Parents & Grandparents

September...Survived

Seriously, I think it was a big accomplishment that we all survived September. Getting back into the routine of school, soccer, and such things was...intense.

I was going to make a Picture Post of our September, but Blogger is being slow and difficult. Thus, you only get a few pictures.

The boys spent a lot of time this September like this:

(These pictures were actually taken on the first day of school. Matt's in 4th grade, Jason in 1st, and Trevor is the king of the school in 6th grade.)

We've spent COUNTLESS hours to the pursuit of soccer. Nevermind, the countless hours of practices and games for 3 boys...but you also have to consider all the time it takes getting shoes, socks, and shin pads on AND gathering all the necessary supplies (AND having your Mom nag you to get all those things accomplished...). Plus, the travel time to and from such games and practices. See, I'm boring you now.

If you have wondered what Julie has seen the most of this month, it is unfortunately NOT the treadmill, but the dashboard of the van...running here, there, and everywhere.

Julie's parents came to visit for a couple weeks in September. It was a joy to spend time with them on our turf. They provided a bit of sanity to our crazy schedules. Amazing what a couple more sets of hands can accomplish!

I'm sure you've all heard about Chad's favorite activity for September...involving a larger than life stadium in Texas. I'm sure it's in his top 5 of best days of his life. (Maybe we should say "top 6" so all his kids' births are in there!). I couldn't do the story of the day justice, so I guess Chad will have to post about that. I did think it was funny that he and Mike spent the morning at Six Flags (trying to avoid too much dizziness) and then went back to the hotel for a nap in order to be ready for the game that night. Does that mean they are getting old?

Anyway, hope you are all well. We're looking forward to seeing most of you in November (thanks to LJ and Kaylie for making that a possibility!).

Mammoth Trip

Hi family! =)

Jason and I spent Labor Day weekend camping in Mammoth with his Dad's side of the family. It was quite an adventure! When Jason told me his family was a having a reunion in Mammoth, I excitedly responded, "I've never been there!" Funnily enough, the six hour drive looked very familiar, and by the time we got to the town at the base of the Sierras (Bishop) where we turned off the highway, I was showing Jason the Sizzler that my Grandpa Harrison had taken me to twice so we could binge after a week back-packing through the mountains. While I had actually been to the area, I'd never explored the town Mammoth, so Jason gave me the tour of the town and I showed him the trail-head off the Twin Lakes where my previous back-packing trips had begun. Also an interesting discovery was the fact the air mattress we'd found in the garage (left by a previous roommate; "Let's bring it!") is only twin size. So Jason and I were pretty cozy all weekend (between the knees and elbows). Oops! Jason caught the most fish this year (a fluke, really, but now he has bragging rights for a year so he's super excited) and I cast half my pole into the lake. I did get better from there though! I also learned to play horseshoes and Boinko Ball (which I won once). The day before we came home we also went on a hike in an attempt to hit a peak and FAR surpassed it (purely by accident), but the view was breathtaking (as was the 5 hour hike ;-) so this trip was definitely a success!

Back to the norm, I'm in four classes and working almost full-time at work every week so it's busy. I am sorry to report that my garden has missed a few waterings as it hasn't been the highest priority. Jason's thrilled that the football season has officially started and watches many of the games because his Fantasy Football players are in them. He's also a great cook and has been experimenting with salsa recipes, which is fun for the whole house. I appreciate all the cleaning and cooking he does between his work so that I can stay on top of school.

Lastly, I'm SO excited for Kaylie & LJ. =D I am happy ta say that my wonderful managers are letting me take the week before Thanksgiving to come to UT (provided I'm back the Sunday before Thanksgiving) so me and Jason will be able to attend the wedding. I'm thinking we'll drive up the Tuesday of that week... more updates to come.

Congrats to Nate as well! I hope you'll enjoy the weather her in CA. We do. =)

Love,
Jason and Brittany

I think I'm pretty late in posting...

Hey family.

Wow, what a month.

My head seems to be in a perpetual spin motion, barely hanging on to the nape of my neck. Which I guess is probably how everyone feels upon becoming engaged/making big life decisions such as that.

Between Lj getting home, the engagement, wedding planning, school starting, and BEING ENGAGED (which sucks, by the way...) life has just been one big tornado. Not to worry, though, it has been a tornado chock-full of warm-fuzzies. Life is great, regardless of the business of it.

Sooooo, BYU vs. Oklahoma game. I know Zach was longing to be a cougar that night. After the game, Provo pretty much went up in flames. I've never seen Mormon kids party so hard in my life. It was absolutely riotous here. We drove around hanging out of the car windows and sun roof just yelling for probably about a half-hour; and even though there were far too many people smashed into our vehicle, we weren't worried about getting pulled over because all the provo cops were doing crowd control elsewhere. (Like the stadium where, I swear, half of Provo gathered to sing the fight song, mosh, and wait for the team to get in.) Outside of my apartment (The Riv on University and University) there were kids running around shirtless in the streets for hours. It was fantastic. Not that they were shirtless. But yeah.

Lj dislocated his clavicle and tore some ligaments in his shoulder playing football a few days ago. He keeps telling me it was karma's doing, because of his incessant mockery towards Bradford after his injury in the game. Hm.

School is... Urg. It's actually really good-- however, my drive is almost completely lost to do homework. Between work, school, and fiance-- I barely have two minutes to check my facebook at the end of the week. But seriously.

The wedding plans are coming right along-- but that is only thanks to all the people helping me out. (Specifically, my mother.) I bought my dress. I picked it out back in April. And it's awesome.

Nate got his mission call, which is INSANE. I can hardly believe that he's already leaving. I'm so proud of him, though. I am, however, really sad that he'll have to miss the wedding. I guess we'll just have to have two of those sweet, life-size cardboard cutouts. (One for Nate, and one for Lj's brother Trey.)

Basically, life is great, and I'm really, truly happy.

I love you all!

Update from the National Champ :-)

Hey Family,
August was a super busy month for me. I am working full time on my research for school. Unfortunately my nano-particles are not cooperating. Oh well. I spend about 8-9 hours in the lab. It has it's good moments and bad, but mostly they are good. I am also starting my routines/practice for the touring team for ballroom again. 3 weeks of lots rehearsals and 9 dances to remember give my old body a pretty good workout. We have National Championships Labor day weekend in Irvine, CA.
Things are going pretty well and I'm glad we have drugs like ibuprofen. School is starting as well. I have only one class, Chem 729R - Surface Chemistry and Analysis. After that, my course work will be pretty much done except for one writing class. I'm hoping my stuff will cooperate sooner rather than later. It will be cool to have so many family members in Provo. Anyone else wanna join?Jared

Note from Libby

Hi--I'm trying to remember to do this, but am obviously not very successful (nothing new about that, is there?)!Do I write a letter and then post it here, or do I just write here, or ??? This is MUCH harder to remember to do...too bad the old days and old ways are past us now. I miss getting letters written by hand and checking the mailbox to find things besides junkmail and/or bills....CONGRATS to Nate, and of course to Kaylie and LJ. (The poor guy looked relatively stunned to have so many 'new' Hancock's to remember when we were 'all' at Nate/Zach's ordinations...and that wasn't even everyone!)Have a good rest-of-September...maybe there'll be time to say "real news" in October? How 'bout Christmas break???Libby

Life Really Seems to be Changing by Steve

It is amazing how much can seem to change in a month. The changes haven't come yet, but now those moments we have prayed for and wondered about are not too far away. Lynette and I were thinking the other day that by the end of this year Kelsey will be the oldest one at home. That is a very strange feeling having three kids leave the house in a matter of months. But we couldn't be happier about how it is happening.

So everyone knows now that Kaylie is engaged and Nate got his mission call to Santa Rosa, CA. He is truly excited the leave. The only thing that puts a damper on it is that it is 3 days before Kaylie and LJ's wedding. I just keep telling myself that the Lord could have easily had him leave a week later, so we will enjoy it.

Quite a bit has already been done for the wedding. (Of course I am measuring this by amount of money going out. So maybe it really isn't a lot if we were to measure it time wise. But a lot of the important decisions have been made.) Kaylie has her dress now. We have a place for the reception and wedding dreamers on board. We have all been able to see Kaylie's dress, except LJ of course. Well, Kelsey hasn't seen it yet, as she so tactifully reminds Kaylie when Kaylie wants to see Kelsey's homecoming dress.

Nate is now working full time getting ready for his mission. He has really taken seriously and is putting a lot of effort into it. He will be speaking in church on the 15th of November, his birthday. Those of you that will be around, we would love to have you.

Zach is now up at our Alma Mater. He has been in school about 3 weeks and already has had a lot of different experiences. Some good and some bad. So far he has been home every weekend. We get to see him when he isn't with his girlfriend Jessica. :-) He probably won't be coming home again for another couple of weeks this time though.

Kelsey is still enjoying soccer. Their team started the season slow but has come on really strong. They are first in their region and we hope that they continue on that way. Kelsey was asked to homecoming, so we are excited about that. Zach's girlfriend is still in high school, so he will be going to that as well. We are absolutely certain Lehi will not win the football game, but everything else should be fun.

Anna has started into volleyball season. She is on the sophmore team, so she has to go from Willow Creek middle school right to the high school each day for practice. Luckily there are some other girls that are making that trip as well. In the first game I watched I was really impressed with how much she has improved. She plays most the games for them.

Tyson, Brianna and Max all have a brand new school this year. It is close enough that they get to walk or ride bikes to school. No more buses.

Tyson and Max are both playing soccer now. Tyson's team is doing really well. They haven't lost yet in the regular season. Max is glad he now gets to play with a keeper. It is his dream to be a keeper and he does a great job at it. He also plays well in the mid-field so we will see what he settles with.

Brianna spends most her free time with friends, but is also buckling down and practicing her piano. We are hoping to have another pianist in the family.

Well I think I have written enough. Hopefully enough to bring everyone up to date. We hope everyone is doing well.

Love from the Lehi Hancocks.

Summer is almost gone. Let the busy season begin.

August was just as busy as the rest of the summer. The month started out with Kira having soccer try-outs and debate on the same week. Debate was at Bingham high. I went there twice a day. In that week I put over a 1000 miles on my car. Because dummy me let Kira split the difference and make it to debate in the morning and then took her to soccer in the afternoon. That week Elijah was going to go and hike devils peak. Terry came home that week early. Kira was really tired and had a tournament on Saturday. Elijah came home early due to weather and it was a good thing to because I was really missing him. The the phone call that I got from him did send me in a panic. I also think that Elijah would have gotten very mad at some of his fellow campers for some bad attitudes. It was a really dry week. Though on an exciting note we were stopped in traffic jam were just minutes before there was a shoot-out. Good thing we stopped to get food. The other 2 weeks were spent getting ready for school. I had to resister the 2 older kids boy that was expensive. School shopping for school stuff. This year is Noah's first year of school. He is very excited about it. I had to get ready to coach Noah's and Isabelle's soccer team. Somewhere in between there Kaylie called to tell us that she was engaged. Isabelle and Noah had to very funny things to I thought to say on that matter. When I told Isabelle and Noah, Isabelle said she put her hand on her head and said oh man you mean she gets a pretty dress and a ring and can gets babies now. When is it going to be my turn. Kira and I just laughed. Noah asked what LJ looked like I told him that he kinda looked like him. Noah's response to this was she sure must love me lots huh mom. I laughed and said yes she does. Noah is the star of having funny things to say. Noah had to have an assessment test done before school. I didn't think that I would have to tell him how the test works. 1st mistake. He went in to the test with flying colors. The teacher asked him his colors, numbers, and how to write his name. He did just fine on these. Now here comes the tricky part. She asked him what this shape was. He told here it was a box. She asked if there was another name for it he said no it's a box. She then asked him what other shapes were. To which he answered ( I don't know why this is yellow) that's an oval and duh that's a diamond I learned that in pre-school. Now here is my 2nd mistake I forgot to tell him to try and be respectful to his teacher. She continued to ask him about the shapes and he got the rest right. She got back to the box and he said I already told you it was a box. Then she said it has another name what is it. Well I guess it could be a cube but a cube and a box are the same. Is there any other name for it she asked him. Then he asked her what she would call it. So then he said I guess if you really wanted to you could call it a square. Well they went on to ask him more question like where is the front of the book and back of the book. Then she read him the first page of the book and asked if he were reading the book where would he start from he turned it to the second page and pointed to the top of the page. The teacher then put the book back to the beginning and asked him the same question. He again turned the page and pointed to the beginning. He failed this part of the test. They said he didn't know where to start on a book. Noah's thinking was they had just read the first page so it was time to read the next one. Made sense to me. So the teacher had come to tell me how the test went. She said that he did really well in the beginning but toward the end he didn't. Maybe he was just getting tired. Well during this time Aaron's 5th grade teacher Mrs. Jacobson came and told me that she would take any of my kids. After this I was talking to Noah about his test. He then told me he thought that he needed to go to Mrs. Jacobson's class. I said but she is a 5th grade teacher. He then asked me if they were really kindergarten teachers. I said yes they were. He said are you sure they are. I assured him that they were. I asked why he thought he should be going to 5th grade. He processed to tell me he doesn't think they are because he had to tell them all the answers to the test. They didn't know any of them! So how could they be teachers. That is also why he stopped answering the questions. 3rd mistake I laughed at this. Which kinds of made him mad. I had to explain that he was taking a test and they were trying to find out what he knew. Then it made some sense to him. He still questions his teacher about things though. I did think that it was funny. Terry was able to be here on the 1st day of school which was great. Kira and Elijah nor was Aaron looking forward to me walking them to class and the taking of the pictures. Terry told them to just grin and bare it they couldn't stop it. I must admit that I did cry. I always do one the first day of school. We went to dinner. It was Noah's choice and he chose Olive Garden. He was so excited about it. I think that he had a great time. Though I do think that he should have gone to Red Lobster. He kept on asking for everybodys shrimp. Noah didn't have to start school until Thursday. Well, when it came time for me to walk him to school he informed me that he didn't want me to walk me to school and he didn't want me to walk him to class. I had to tell him that I walked the 10th, 8th , and 6th grader to their class and school I'm going to walk him. He can have Aaron do it all the other times. Well, now he wants me to do all the time. Kira and Audrey's schools played each other in pre season soccer games. We won. It was the first win for Stansbury High ever. Their game ball was signed by all the players and it is now in the trophy case. This is all for now. Terry, Pauline, Kira, Elijah, Aaron, Noah, and Isabelle