Crazy Fun and Hard Work

The kids have really enjoyed spending time on Sunday evenings playing games.

They look forward to it, and so do Daddy and I.

Noah's hair is growing quite long on top.

In fact, it was long enough that I could put a few small braids in his hair.

He said it hurt to have his hair done, but it was funny to see too.

I think he may be ready for another hair cut.

Daddy has worked for 7 days straight at nights.

It's exhausting!

The wintry weather has made the roads quite bad, and there have been lots of accidents.

He had to watch someone die the other night.

It was quite sad.

Daddy is a strong man and does his job so well.

Yummy, Humongous Cookies!

Joyanne was bored so she made some REALLY BIG cookies.

She took a peanut butter cookie recipe and a chocolate cookie recipe and swirled the dough around each other to make these AMAZING, delicious cookies.

She loves to bake treats and her brothers think it's great!

I spent the evening spending a 1/2 hour with each of my kids playing the Wii.

Noah and I played "Just Dance". 

Grant and James wanted "Mario Kart".

Then Jaden and I played "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles".

And with Joyanne and Hiram, we played "Dr. Mario".

We had 3 hours of fun, but by the time we were done, my brain felt fried. ;)

Rocket Derby

Hiram and Jaden were pretty excited about their rocket derby. 

Daddy had helped them to help get them in good shape.

The dads had as much fun as the boys, watching the rockets take off.

Everyone was a winner, but Jaden took first place for the fastest rocket.

But Hiram worked the hardest on his rocket.

We love the scouting program!

Play Practice

I participated in my first play practice and really enjoyed it.

I memorized my script in a week.

Joyanne had her basketball game.

They won their game by 2 points.

Joyanne made 2 shots and was quite the go-getter.

Way to go, Joyanne!

Cute Kids

We had fun watching a movie together.

Weekends are so relaxing without the demands of school, scouts and everything else.

These kids are such good, cute kids.

Daddy-O!

Daddy is an amazing, strong man.

He loves his kids and wants to spend time with them as much as he can.

We just love our Daddy-O!

Snowy Day in St. Anthony

It was a beautiful snowy day in St. Anthony, Idaho.

We were up visiting Daddy's family.

I couldn't resist walking home from church and taking pictures of the winter wonderland surrounding me.

Jaden was wishing we could trade our snow in Tremonton for the mounds of snow in Idaho.

The Mitten

Library story time was fun as the kids participated in the story, "The Mitten" by Jan Brett

There was a big sheet sewn together in the shape of a mitten.

The kids were the animals climbing into the big mitten.

Swimming as a family and watching "Hotel Transylvania 2" was a very fun.

Cow Eyes

Here's Noah holding a cow's eye.

He was anxiously awaiting for weeks to dissect cow's eyes in his class.

He was so excited when the day finally came.

He learned that cow's eyes were tough to cut into, but they were fascinating.

I received happy news today.

I tried out for a play, "The Inventor's Daughter" and got the part of Ima Fox.

I'm excited to be apart of a fun play.

Spoiled Grant

Grant has a big gumball in his mouth.

Such a cute boy and easy to spoil, but we pay the price when we spoil him. :)

He misses playing with his siblings while they're at school.

So he coerced me to build a car track for him.

I zoomed cars around with him in the track.

Grant ALWAYS wants Daddy or I to play games with him, read stories or play with toys with him.

But we have to get our chores done, so Grant will help us sweep the floor, fold laundry or pick up the toys and other things.

I spent time in Family search.org and was had a lot of fun searching up ancestors.

I think the spirit of Elijah has rested upon me and I'm excited to spend some time doing family history this year.

Our Reader: Jaden

Jaden loves to read.

He was spotlighted at the library.

They took a picture of him with his favorite book.

For Christmas, Jaden was thrilled to receive 5 poem books by Jack Prelutsky.

Jaden has several poems memorized, and it's fun to hear him recite them.

Way to go, Jaden!

Basketball Game for Joyanne

Joyanne had fun for her first week at basketball.

She's #15.

She learned a lot this week.

Joyanne did well at listening and following directions.

At her game, she made 2 shots.

Their team lost by only a points.

It was a great game.

The Tricky Trap

All the kids got pretty bored tonight, so Noah and I set up this obstacle course for all the kids to go through.

It's blue tape with mini erasers attached.

The kids had to go through in 1 minute and get at least 10 erasers without making any of the tape fall.

We had fun for a Friday night!

Family Photo

Joyanne needed a Family photo for her journalism class.

They are also doing a bit of photography.

So, here we are on this nice, brisk, wintry day.

And I'm even in my glasses.

Now that's a rare sight.

Noah loved having his friend, Nick, come over and hang out.

I've enjoyed working on scouts a bit with Hiram and Jaden.

Our routine is pretty set, but we are enjoying life.

Do ya wanna Build a Snowman?

We loved all the snow that swirled down today.

Daddy helped Grant make a Snowman with the powdery, wet snow.

The kids were all excited about the new Geometry Dash game they downloaded with ALL the levels.

They were able to have some time to play this evening, which usually doesn't happen on a school night.

Taking a Break

It's nice to take some time to sit in the evening to watch a show or read a book.

We enjoy our unwinding time.

Happy New Year!

We visited my 97-year old Grandpa.

Jaden recited 2 poems by Jack Prelutsky by memorization.

My nephew, Stephen, played a few songs on the guitar.

He sings and plays well.

Grant and Emma were so cute to see dancing together.

They are fun cousins together.

It was delightful to go to Leatherby's with my sister and Mom to celebrate my sister's birthday, who died a year and a half ago.

We made fun memories just chatting and connecting.