Spring Break 2017

For spring break, the kids and I went on an overnight trip to faraway and exotic St. George!  We stopped at Red Cliffs on our way down and hiked there- and saw some frogs! Then we traveled on to St. George and checked in to our motel- we stayed at this sweet little motel where Jason and I have stayed a couple times.  It is admittedly a little ghetto, but we got a suite with a kitchen that sleeps 6, a pool, and continental breakfast for $45- can't beat that!

 After recovering there for a couple of hours, we met Noelle and her kids at the children's museum -- it was extra fun with little kids to hang out with!  After that we drove to the store and picked out stuff to make for dinner, went back to the hotel to eat, then went swimming. That was really fun; I haven't been swimming with my kids in a long time!

Then in the morning we went to our favorite cool park, then to Fiesta Fun to ride bumper boats and go-carts. (We even let Amanda drive the little ones by herself first since she wasn't big enough to drive the big ones.)  Then we got Chick-fil-A for lunch (a big treat because we don't have one in Cedar) and went home!

Mixing it up this time with a photo montage!

March 2017

So according to the pictures in my phone, very little happened in January and February of 2017.  But March was pretty exciting!

We went to a Dr. Seuss party at the libary!

Jessica was in a play of "The Jungle Book"- she was a vulture!

After getting stuck in a snowstorm, I decided I really needed 4 wheel drive!  So I sold my cute little sentra and got this even cuter Jeep Liberty!  Alas, it died after one month.

Brandy got skin cancer!  After she had it removed she had to wear a cone for 3 weeks.

Melissa got to celebrate her favorite holiday!  In addition to the very important dress-up-in-as-much-green-as-possible part, she had friends over for a St. Patrick's party!

Christmas Season 2016

Know what we love around here?  CHRISTMAS!!  

These first few pics are from one of our favorite Christmas activities, "Christmas at the Homestead" at the pioneer museum.  It gets better every year!

Next activity: making Christmas cards for Grandma Topsy

Amanda got to be Mary for the nativity play at the ward party!

We made all these snowflakes for the ward party in two hours!

Jessica made a "Buche Noel" (yule log) for her French class

               Sugar cookies!

 And now we have arrived at Christmas Eve!

We schedule out our whole day on Christmas Eve and spend the whole day together.

One of our Christmas Eve traditions is to go downtown and take a picture on this sleigh- this year we did it the day before because a huge snowstorm was forecast for Christmas Eve.






On Christmas Eve we played games... 

And made gingerbread houses

Ate our "shepherds' dinner"

Opened Christmas jammies and watched "The Santa Clause" (it's always that or "Elf")

And went to bed!

Here are my little angels on Christmas morning

It snowed all day and night Christmas Eve, and on Christmas morning the roads still weren't okay to drive, so we didn't get to go to church. (it was Sunday)

 Opening Presents!

I will also take this opportunity to show off some presents I made this year...

This is a cross-stitch I did for Nat of Wicked characters (notice the ribbon at the top representing Glinda and the one at the bottom representing Elphaba)

This was the present we made for my parents; I did the cross stitch and Jason made the frame!

Then this was my Dad's birthday present

 (it matches this one I made a few years ago for my mom!)

And this one for baby Ellie-- I LOVE this frame!

 And that concludes our Christmas fun!

Fall 2016

 I'm playing catch-up, so here's a summary post of fall 2016!

I re-did the living room!  Got the sectional I've been wanting for a long time, ordered an unfinished coffee table and painted it, and made new curtains!

Natalie moved out!!  She had been planning to live at home for her first year at SUU, but then a couple weeks after school started, a friend in our ward offered her a housing scholarship!  She moved out 2 days later!  She moved to a 2 bedroom apartment and became really good friends with her two roommates.

Jess started a paper route!

Halloween!  Jess was Cruella Deville, Missy was Disgust from Inside out and Josh was Anger, and Amanda was Kion from her favorite show of all time, "The Lion Guard."

Josh got his driver's license!!!!!!!!!!!

 I sprained my ankle reeeally bad

Melissa played a flute solo for Young Women in Excellence.

 We went to the pumpkin patch, the best part of which is always the corn pit!

Jana's fam came to visit, and Robyn's fam came over to see them, and we had 15 kids!

 We got to meet our new cousin Ellie!