School Starting

First day shots this year...

He's holding up one finger for 1st grade.

She holding up 2 thumbs just because.
We hope its a great year!

Summer Summary

I can hardly believe school starts next week! This summer has flown by.
Our baby turned 1!
She's a cutie-- love her bright eyes.

D did have a great experience at the temple & other places in D.C.


We kicked off our family vacation w/ a trip to a water park. Don't have any pics, though (I need a waterproof camera.)

Then we drove to Bear Lake for a reunion. That was fun! We had a 5K. Don't have any pics of that either (I need a camera that captures action shots in super high speed. Ha! Just kidding.) I'm so slow. I maybe jog about the speed of this boat...
The boat we didn't need a balloon pump to fill was faster.

We also played on the shore & rented a water trampoline.

Here are my parents and siblings.
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Look how blue the water is behind us! Bear Lake is really pretty.

My mom bought these cute flag shirts for all 20 grandkids.
With so many kids, we got our money's worth out of the cabin's hot tub!

1st Temple Trip

We are so pleased at how bright, kind, and lovable this kid is. He just turned 12 & is so excited to go to the DC temple with G'ma & G'pa.
Here, he's holding his temple recommend.
I remember playing with him & his little people when he was 3. After my sister got married, he'd very carefully play with our porcelain temple. To get their recommend, the people would answer questions like, "Do you believe Jesus is real?", "Do you believe in prophets?" and "Do you try to keep the commandments?". It was great to talk to him after having a real recommend interview & thinking back to our pretending. Same questions, he confirmed.
We love the temple!

Spring Update

We have had a busy spring!

We've been sick a lot... strep (twice), ear infections, bronchitis, and a respiratory virus that resulted in a 3 day hospital stay for the 3yr old.

Bless her heart. She liked the popsicles. The oxygen tubes...not so much.
She was better by her birthday, so she got to be princess for a day!

Ah, who are we kidding? She kind of reigns around here all the time, little feisty pants!
We had a retirement party for my father-in-law in April. It was really fun to see lots of family and celebrate that milestone for him. We had BBQ and I made a "happy trails" sign that turned out pretty cute.

For Easter, the kids and I drove to my sister's. We had a great time.

D enjoys band at school. He's getting pretty good on his clarinet & even played in church! We're proud of him.

For mother's day, I got trees to plant.
And lots of hugs & love.

Snowy!

So snowy!

So pretty!

So cold!

So yummy!

So fun!

Sunrise

Last night I started out in bed alone. (Daddy & D were camping with the Scouts- luckily it's very warm here in the west for Feb.)
But, at some point in the night, all 4 other children took turns waking me up. At maybe 5:30, I surrendered my bed to the two who were still there and decided to just go nurse the baby in one of their empty bedrooms. I hoped once I got her fed, I could go back to sleep.

But... our younger son followed me.
He was WIDE awake.
We chatted a while as I sat and held the baby.
He peered with wonder out the window, seeing an orange tint in the sky.
He wanted to watch the sunrise.
Realizing we didn't have the best view, we put on shoes & jackets and the three of us headed outside.
We walked to the trail the runs behind the next street over. We starred at the almost full moon. We watched the mountains to the west turn pink, then white. We smiled at the bundled baby. We guessed where exactly the sun would pop up. It was so fun watching his excitement as we spotted the first full rays of sunshine.
I marveled at the simple beauty of God's world and my son's sweet spirit.
And to think... I wanted to sleep.
I'm so glad I didn't miss that.

Kids' New Year's Countdown

We are ready for fun!
For the last several years, we've had a very kid-friendly party ending with a balloon drop.
We have numbered bags for the kids to rip open in succession. Each bag has an activity to do. Our line up for tonight is:

10- New calendar. You can write everyone's birthdays (kids like seeing what day of the week their's falls)
9- Pizza dough to make individual pizzas
8- 100 piece puzzle to put together while the pizzas bake
7- Paper to record a goal
6- Fancy toasting glasses which we'll fill with eggnog milkshakes

5- Play ping pong--if nec'y, improvise with any small ball (hollow or rubber bouncy ball) on your kitchen table using books as paddles
4- Card game to play together
3- Simple craft (you could make paper snowflakes to hang in a window)
2- Popcorn to eat while watching an episode or their favorite cartoon. We love Shaun the Sheep!
1- Music for freeze-dancing

A balloon drop is easy to set up if you have a ceiling fan and crepe paper to form a net. When you turn on the fan, the balloons spin off!

You don't have to wait 'til midnight. It's always 12 somewhere. I like celebrating Greenland's or EST... a decent amount of sleep makes for happier campers the next day.
Happy New Year!