Jan/Feb 2019

It has been awhile since I have updated the blog.  People used to tell me how much harder it got when your kids got older, and I wouldn't actually say that it is harder, but it is definitely busier, so I am not as good at getting the old blog updated like I used to, but I definitely want to keep up with it, for our own family history purposes.

So, I am going to break up the last few months into three posts.  Starting with a few pictures I took of our doings in January and February.

Jack finished up Webelos and earned his arrow of light.  He is very happy to have this cool award hanging in his room.  We are so grateful to his leaders for helping him accomplish this goal.

Drake and Tad participated in the pinewood derby.  Tad is still only seven, but since we thought it was going to be the last pinewood derby (with scouts going away next year), the stake told us to go ahead and let all the boys who would be turning eight this year participate.  Drake took first in speed and Tad took second.  They were pretty happy!

The next day the boys wanted to get out all the pinewood derby cars and awards that Jeremy and the boys have made and won over the years.  12 cars!  Wow!

That is it for January and February, but the next post is a huge one!

Thomas is 13!

It is official.  We have another teenager in the house!

Thomas had his 13th birthday a couple of weeks ago. 

We are so happy with Thomas and what a good kid he is.  He has made the transition to Jr. High so easily.  He has been able to keep track of all of his classes and continue to be an A student.  He also has been able to make and keep friends that are such good kids, which makes my life much less stressful.

We are so grateful that Thomas became part of our family 13 years ago.  Happy birthday Tom!

Jack is Eleven!

My handsome boy Jack is already eleven!!  He turned 11 just after the new year, so he just missed the deadline to be advanced from Primary and become a Deacon.  I am happy though. I  Love having as many of my boys in Primary with me as I can get!

Jack is such a great kid!  Everyone, and I mean everyone, that knows him, likes him.  He is inventive and good with his hands and is almost always cheerful.  We love having him in our family!  Happy Birthday Jack!

Sledding

People don't usually associate Arizona with snow, but I live in the mountains of Arizona and we get snow every winter.  The last few winters have been pretty dry though, and so we were thrilled to get a nice big storm on New Years Eve, not only for the much needed water, but also because we could go sledding!

I am putting these up in no particular order.

Dallin was having so much fun he would not hold still long enough for me to get a decent picture of him, but I am sharing it to prove he was there and also because you can see our house in it. I circled it in the picture.  There is a big tree covering half of it, but you get the idea anyway.

Jeremy giving Drake a good push.

Thomas, Jack, and Tad getting warm by the fire.

Jack, ready to take off.

Tad climbing back up after a trip down.  I love how he doubled up on hats.  He did not want to be cold.

Thomas and Tad getting ready for a trip down the hill.

Thomas climbing back up carrying his sled and Tad's tube.  What a good big brother.  (You can see Tad following along after him.)

It was a fun day!

Christmas Decor 2018

I know, I know, this is waaaaay past due, and I actually took my Christmas decor down the day after Christmas, but it just made me so happy this year, that I took a few quick shots of some of it before it came down.  So this post is mostly for me.

I only took pictures of some of the decor that was different this year.  For a look at the decor in some other places in my house you can click here.  It looked basically the same this year.

Some fun decor in the new built-ins. It was so fun having this space to decorate this year.

A close up shot of my favorite part of it!

My front entry hook shelf was a little simpler this year and I loved it.  I also love the little stockings hung on Drake's and Tad's hooks.  Every time they would get a gift that came in one of those little stockings (from teachers, friends, etc.) they would hang it on their hook.  They had quite a collection by the time Christmas rolled around.

My china hutch got a little touch of holiday cheer this year. and you can see a glimpse of our favorite pocket advent calendar quilt in this shot too.

Some candy canes in the hutch.  I was surprised that my boys obediently left these alone, but as soon as I started putting everything away, they disappeared in a flash.

And finally, I got out these fun Santa mugs and displayed them.  I got them ridiculously cheap (like 25 cents each) on clearance a few years ago.  They were a fun addition this year.

Christmas Time

Just popping in to share a few photos of some of the fun things that we have done during the last month.

We made some cute donut hole snowmen.  I love Drake's face here.  I'm not quite sure what he was thinking.

We have a tradition where we make a new ornament every year, so this year we made these cute washer snowmen.  I love how they turned out.

We did a lot of other fun things too, but I didn't get any pictures.  I needed to be in the moment, more than I needed pictures I guess.

I did get this cute picture of Tad as one of the Candlelight Carolers at the Elementary school Christmas program.  He was one of the kids selected to do the opening number, and he did a great job!

Here he is with his cute cousin singing with his first grade class.  They did such a good job with this song as well.

And this is a picture of Drake singing with the third grade.   He was also selected to be one of the carolers that sang songs between all the numbers as the kids were getting off and on stage.  He was very happy to be selected as part of this group and he did a great job!!  I wish I would have gotten a picture of him doing that, but they all turned out blurry.  It was just too dark where they were sitting.  Darn!

I also went to Jack's choir concert and Christmas spectacular.  They were both so fun!

Dallin and Thomas had a choir concert at the Junior High as well and I enjoyed it so much.  Choir was my thing as a teenager, and I am so enjoying watching my boys in choir.

Thomas also played a piano duet with a friend in Sacrament meeting today and played perfectly!  I am proud of him for being so brave!  It is not easy to play for the first time in front of the whole ward.

We are looking forward to Christmas and we are so thankful for all of our blessings!  Merry Christmas!

Catching Up

It has been too long since I posted, but I am still struggling to pull out my camera enough.  Oh well, I will make a goal to do better and get a post up with a few of the things that we have been doing over the past two months.

Jack and Tad playing with the zoo animals set on the Halloween quilt.  I don't know how much longer this kind of activity will be taking place in my house.

Drake turned nine!!!!  Very exciting for him, not as much for me.

All the boys dressed up for Halloween this year.  Last year Dallin decided he was over it, but this year, he had to support the Jr High Halloween social, since he is student body president, so that meant a costume for him.  We came up with this on the fly at about 10:00 at night on October 30th, but he liked it.  We also came up with Thomas's last minute Karate Kid headband late that night.  Thank goodness for a vinyl cutter and screen printing ink we had on hand.

We had planned ahead on the other boys.  Jack was Hawkeye (from the Avengers).  Drake was a Jedi, and Tad was Thor for the third year in a row.  I told him this had to be the last year, since he would be too big for the costume next year.  He isn't very happy about that, but I let him keep it out and he dresses up in it from time to time now.  I totally got my money's worth out of that costume!

Jeremy has been building a wall to surround our backyard.  Tad has been a good helper!

I did a little decorating for Thanksgiving.

And after Thanksgiving I did a little Christmas decorating.  I will try to share more of it over the next few weeks.

Sadly that is all the pictures I have to share, but I guess it is better than nothing.