Happy Birthday, Amara!

We felt lucky being able to share Amara's birthday with her.

It was a happy day as she received lots of fun gifts.

Her cupcake cake and 4 flavors of ice cream was a delicious treat for all.

Family time is such a fun time!

Read, Read, Read!

I loved seeing Daddy reading Doctrine and Covenants Section 20 with Noah.

Noah gets ordained to the office of a deacon this next week, so Daddy taught Noah about the sacredness and the responsibilities of the priesthood.

Hiram, Jaden and James spent nearly all day just read, read, reading away!

Those Harry Potter books are quite captivating.

Grant enjoyed sitting around, but he would pull out a chapter book and pretend to read too.

Joyanne loves playing the piano and composing pieces, then putting them into her computer program, "Finale".

Blue and Gold Banquet

The cub scouts had the Blue and Gold Banquet.

Jaden earned his Wolf badge.

Hiram earned 4 badges.

He has one more to go until he earns his Webelos.

Our theme was "Star Wars", so I made the veggies and dessert.

They were a pretty big hit!

I had chocolate graham crackers with marshmallows in the middle to look like Star Fighters.

Daddy helped by dipping big pretzels in red and green frosting to make Lightsabers.

I also made red velvet cupcakes with white frosting and a colored marshmallow on top to look like storm troopers.

It was easy to make a vegetable tray and call them Vater Veggies.

Actress Joyanne

Joyanne had a comedy club performance.

She played several roles in some skits and a mini-melodrama.

She was pretty funny as she had to pretend to walk on bananas.

She played the role of Mrs. Gold fabulously!

She acted rich and snobby.

But no matter what role she played, she somehow always ended up with the cute guy in the end. ;)

The Inventor's Daughter

I was in the play "The Inventor's Daughter".

I played the female villainous by the name of Ima Fox.

Every part of the play was so fun, and I'm sad it's over.

I used a southern accent to help develop my character.

My character flirted with all 3 male actors as part of the play.

I had to learn to be sassy and sweet at the same time.

Overall, it was a fun adventure; one I hope to repeat.

I so appreciate my husband, who supported me through it all.

Such Good Kids

I woke up this morning to these 5 boys playing with Legos quietly.

Noah made a nice, big ship.

All 6 kids were so great while I went visiting teaching.

When I got home, everyone was all ready for church and had eaten lunch.

I took them to church, and they all sat quietly while I practiced with the ward choir.

Several moms commented to the kids and me about how amazingly good they behaved.

One mom even brought my kids brownies tonight for their good behavior.

They even were good all through the rest of church.

It was a gratifying day to have such good, well-behaved kids!

Happy Birthday, James!

James turned 7 years old.

He is growing up.

He was excited about all his presents, but he especially loved his Whoopie cushions.

He like his white cake with chocolate chips inside and his oreo cookie chocolate frosting.

We are so happy to have this sweet, wonderful boy as a part of our family.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAMES!

Comedy Club

Recently Joyanne joined a comedy club where they do a lot of impromptu acting.

She has loved having the opportunity to do some acting.

She is in a skit that she is so cute at performing in.

And in the end, Joyanne gets the guy. ;)

His Little Shadow

Daddy has a little shadow who loves to follow him EVERYWHERE!

Not only does Grant like to follow him around, but he also likes to dress like Daddy if he can.

Cute little critter sometimes drives us quite crazy!

Seven Peaks Lehi Fun Center

For part of our kids birthdays, we got the ultimate city passes to Seven Peaks and their fun centers.

As a family, we had so much fun playing glow-in-the-dark miniature golf and  especially, laser tag.

We played laser tag 3 times and had so much fun.

We all loved eating dinner at "Pizza Pie Cafe".

Our tummies were stuffed and hurting afterwards.

It was such a fun family day!

Farewell, Stephan!

Stephan is leaving to Buenas Aires, Argentina on Wednesday to Serve a mission and share the gospel.

He will be a great missionary.

Joyanne played a piano solo during Sacrament Meeting for Stephan's farewell.

She played her own arrangement of "Called to Serve".

She always does an amazing job with her piano abilities.

We will all miss Stephan tons!

Oh, and, Happy Valentine's Day!

Basketball Gal

This girl played hard as she dribbled the ball down the court.

She got the ball a lot and did amazing.

She made half of her teams points.

Though they lost, Joyanne gave her very best the entire game.

This was my favorite picture I took of Joyanne.

Skiing Mania

Joyanne and Bree had fun skiing at Snowbasin this last weekend.

These two girls are two peas in a pod.

They love hanging out together.

They both love music.

They love to listen to music, play music and write music.

They both love books.

They love to read books and write books.

They are very talented and creative girls.

Joyanne says Bree is her true friend and the best person in the world (besides her mom and dad, of course). ;-)