Scouts

The scouts learned about police and crime prevention.

They were able to see inside a police car and learn about the tools the police use.

They also took their own fingerprints.

Tonight I am exhausted.

I ran just over 2 miles in 20 minutes and did a gruelling workout.

Then I shopped for nearly 3 hours and still didn't get all our groceries.

And scouts came right after.

With a splitting migraine and a worn out body, I think this lady is in need of a movie night. :)



Crazy Hair Day

For Red Ribbon Week at the Elementary School the kids had CRAZY HAIR DAY!

James and Grant wanted to join in the fun too.

I had a friend cut my  hair today.  Here is the before the hair cut picture. 

And here is me with my new do.

What do ya think? 

Jaden came home from school and said, "Mom, did you do your hair for Crazy Hair Day?"

I asked him, "Does it look crazy?"

He said it didn't and realized I had just cut my hair. :)



Quiet Game

Soup was for dinner tonight.

Chicken Pot Pie soup and Chicken Tortellini.

I love the time of sitting around the table and talking with each other.

Often the kids get loud and hyper, but if I steer the conversation to what they liked about school or ask other questions, it's not so bad.

One of our favorite games at the table is the quiet game.

Even Grant can say "One, two, three . . .  quiet game!"

Sometimes the kids get pretty competitive about winning.

Daddy and I really like this game. ;)



Changes

Joyanne and Noah can be so silly together.

They were hyper today as they tickled each other and played crazy games.

They come up with great mysteries.

Here someone wrote a "mirror message" and they are trying to solve who wrote it.

Church was happy and sad today.

Our ward is changing boundaries and we said goodbye to dear friends.

The church is true, no matter where you go.



Room Switch

Yesterday was an exhausting day.

I worked hard on cleaning up Christmas, doing laundry (endless laundry), and cleaning the house.

I became discouraged by the messy house and was sick of being in it, so I went outside and shoveled the ice off our driveway.

The fresh, brisk air was just the thing I needed.

Daddy came home and made everything all better.

He got right to work beside me and we cleaned and organized.

One of the things we did together is switch our kids rooms around.

Joyanne and Noah weren't too thrilled about switching their rooms, but the others were.

Hiram and James were especially excited to be sharing a room upstairs.

Today the kids worked hard on getting their chores in tip-top shape.

They cleaned every corner and organized each room.

Then Daddy vacuumed while I finished up laundry and cleaning off our junk-piled counter.

After all the hard work, we played around and watched a movie tonight.

Back to the Grind

After a fun-filled vacation to Disneyland, it's back to the grind of our routine life.

Laundry, dishes and trying to clean up Christmas.

We hit a few after Christmas sales and bought ourselves a new Christmas tree for next year and a couple of wreaths.

Gotta love after holiday sales.

And tonight, a work dinner to attend.

The kids were great with Joyanne as their babysitter.

We are so grateful for Joyanne and all she does.

And we are grateful for such good, well-behaved boys.

I love my family!!!

New Years Celebration

Hap-py New Years!

We sent out 2013 by spending time with Daddy's parents, Grandma and Grandpa, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

They took us to the park and if there's something to climb at the park, my kids will be on top of it.

James is sitting on top here.

Hiram is standing here. 

We went to the National Park, Red Rock Canyon, for a picnic lunch and some rock climbing.

Joyanne, Noah, Hiram and Jaden took off right after their sandwiches and got climbing pretty high.

James and I trailed after them, but soon had to turn back because it became too steep.

But not too steep for those rascals.

They kept going and scared Daddy, Grandpa and Grandma when they steered pretty close to a rocky cliff.

Thankfully we all made it down safely.

We took an afternoon drive down by the strip of Las Vegas to show the kids the intricately decorated buildings.

They were pretty fascinated by the buildings and all the people.

Thankfully they didn't see much of any inappropriate stuff, but we did just drive up and back.

The evening was fun to just be with Grandpa and Grandma.

Dinner was delicious and playing "Phase 10" was fun too, especially because I unexpectedly won.

We had the traditional cheese ball, Sprite to drink, and Rootbeer Floats.

We rang in the New Year at New York's time, 3 hours early.

We blew our horns and hugged each other.

Daddy and I had our first kiss of the year. ;)

HAP-PY NEW YEAR!!!

To celebrate the first day of the new year, we drove 9 hours home and did great because we still had presents to open from our anonymous givers, in the car.

The kids played find the certain color of car game, the ABC game and enjoyed treats.

They were also able to watch movies in the car. 

When we arrived home, our animals were still alive and well-cared for by a neighbor.

The kids helped unload the car and then they excitedly opened the presents under the tree that Santa left.

They liked their calendars and chocolate they received and the package of socks too.

Our new year has started out well and we are pondering over new year's resolutions.

HAP-PY 2014 NEW YEAR!!!