RyDeR

What's the wild child been up to you ask?

just being super freakin' cute if you ask me!

SuPaSTaR!

I'm so proud of my smart little kiddies. At the first of the year they set goals and by the end of the year they had achieved them. By achieving these goals they were awarded a "Super Star Award".

Here's Cooper posing with his.

I feel really bad but this is the best picture I have of Rhielyn receiving hers.

I'm both so proud of all of their hard work. These are both two awesome little spirits with smart little brains and I'm so proud they take after me!

MoRe DaNCiNG!

Rhielyn loved dancing this year. This picture is from one of many dance competitions. This was my favorite competition, probably because it was so close to home. Here she is posing in front of "the rock" at Spanish Fork High. I can't remember what place they took. All I know is they got a trophy and that's all that matters.

Of course she has lots of people come to support her.

She was so proud to be able to show off her skills.

Here's some pictures from her recital. She expects all of our family to come bearing gifts and most of them do.

Always sassy with Shay!

She had a lot more people come to see her but they all had to sneak out after she danced. Of course Mike and I were there as well as her brothers, Grandma Myrl and Grandpa Kaye, and Grandma Randy and Morgan and Madison.

This is what I got when I told her to pose for her before picture

Here's her after.

Isn't she just the cutest? I just love this picture, even though the color is a little off, just because I think she looks just like a doll.

We have loved this year of dancing. I love watching my little girl doing something she loves so much and is so good at. I'm so proud of my little Dancerella!

eaSTeR 2010

For some reason I didn't get many pictures of Easter this year which I'm quite surprised about since it's my favorite holiday. But, things were just the same as every other year I guess.

We colored eggs at my parents house and went on many egg hunts (which I guess I have no pictures of). One thing I thought was funny though, was we all went to the Salem City egg hunt. We (me, Mike, Cooper, Rhielyn and Ryder), were all just standing around after the hunt talking to some cousins and the firemen just kept handing Rhielyn all the extra tickets. It was funny because the two boys were standing right by her but they were never offered any. Rhielyn was nice though and shared with them. I guess girls always have daddy's heart even when it's not exactly her daddy.

This is the kiddos showing off their new Easter clothes. If you can't tell Rhielyn was really happy to get a new outfit, the boys not so much.

fIshIng

We love to get out as a family and enjoy the outdoors.

My kids love to go fishing.

Even Rhielyn loves to fish. Who would have thought such a girly girl would love it?

I'm so thankful for every second I get to spend with my. I'm also thankful for all the beautiful things in nature. These pictures were taken at Springlake on our first fishing outing of the year. I can't wait for many more outing to come.

kIndErgArtEn grAdUAtIOn

Rhielyn graduated from kindergarten. These are the announcements I made to celebrate her awesome accomplishment. They did so many fun things in kindergarten and she learned so much. I'm so proud of Rhielyn and what a hard worker she is. She started reading and is working really hard on becoming and even better reader. Rhielyn is just like her momma because her favorite subject is math.

She's getting so old. This year the theme they worked on was something like Everyday people are ordinary people doing extraordinary things. This graduation was like nothing I have ever seen. All these sweet little people were up on stage singing all these patriotic songs, repeating patriot saying and all of them even knew the Preamble. These little people knowing all these patriotic things about our country and the people serving our wonderful country proved to mean much more when a soldier from Salem was killed during combat.

The graduation was dedicated to him and his family. His parents were there to see what all these little people worked so hard on and so we could all show our respects. Nigil Olsen gave his life so we could all have freedom and I love that these little people could see that and maybe understand a little about how he sacrificed his life so they could live in a free country and grow up with freedom to become who they want to be.

This year Rhielyn had the privilege to have Mrs. Tischner as her teacher. Mrs. Tischner the best teacher anyone could ask for. While her class was a lot of work for Rhielyn as well as me it was well worth every minute.

DaNCe CoMPeTiTioN (ST. GeoRGe)

Rhielyn had a dance competition in St. George so we decided to make it a girls trip. My mom, Shaylie, Kami and Layken all decided to join us. We had so much fun. It was really nice to get away.

Rhie posing with her trophy. She was so excited about it. She is a really awesome dancer and had so much fun.

Rhielyn and Layken loved watching all the other dance teams. Rhie's dance team did two different dances. Her team took 2nd and 3rd. She was so excited. We've got three more competitions and her dance recital all by the first of May. We've got a busy few weeks but we can't wait.

SeRiously?!

Don't look at his hair. He's supposed to be napping, but instead I hear "Mom HELP!, I stuck!".
I can't leave him alone for a minute.

CooPeR'S BRoKeN FooT!

Cooper decided to jump down the stairs a few days after Christmas and this was the result. He got a pretty little cast. We don't know if he broke it or not but it wasn't getting better with only wearing the splint so the Dr. decided it would be best for him to have this hard cast. It didn't slow him down much, but he did find out soon that he did not like using crutches. He was glad when he got his cast off 10 days later. This was our first experience with a cast and I certainly hope it was the last too!

CHRiSTMaS 2009!

Jex family Christmas party 2009!
At the Jex family Christs party we have a few traditions. One tradition of course is great food. The second is the candy jars filled with an unknown amount of candy that we try to guess. And of course another tradition is SANTA!


Gordon family party!
This year my mom and dad were in charge of the Gordon family party. It was really fun. We ate dinner, had a family gift exchange (which was super funny! Thanks to Braylee. She's a hoot.) We also had a very nice picture DVD of pictures from past Christmas' . It was a really nice way to remember the loved ones we have lost and the ones who couldn't make it there that night. and of course SANTA came again.



Candy bar trains!
One tradition my mom always does is making candy bar trains. The kids love it. This year it was so fun to watch to older kids make their trains and see how much they loved doing it. I helped Ryder make his train but to be honest I only helped him at first and as soon as he saw how it was done he wanted to glue everything on himself. It was really a fun night.
CHRISTMAS DAY!
One tradition we always have done is to spend Christmas Eve at my parents house. This year they live in a new house so things were a little different but it was a lot of fun. This was the first year Libby and Riley were married so it was fun having her share in our fun. We spent the day opening presents and just lounging around. Around lunch time we all had to go visit other family members so we didn't get to see much of each other until later that night. At night we just played some games and me and my brothers had a ton of fun playing Super Mario Bros on the Wii. I love playing Nintendo with them it's so much fun. I didn't many pictures of the kids that day but later when we made it home with all of our new loot I made the kids hold their favorite gift in front of the tree so I could get a picture. We sure had a Merry Christmas and I'm glad that we could all celebrate Christs birth and remember what CHRISTmas is all about. We had a lot of fun this year. We are all so blessed.