March

One of my favorite pictures ever is one when we had just moved from Arizona and I took these 3 to an activity and they had their arms around each other and looked so young and scared and helpless.  They were best friends because they didn't know anyone else.  It was a scary time for them.  They have long outgrown that picture, but I love that they are still friends.  I wanted an updated pic, and when I dropped them off at a fireside I decided it was a good time for one.  They were not very compliant, but it still makes me happy to see them together!

 Pi day!  Alyssa and Amber

 Pretty sure Soran won the pie eating contest.  Notice Alyssa's copper hair.  She was supposed to dye it brown for nationals, but considering I had never dyed hair before, it was interesting.  It turned into a purpley red, which we added a lot of brown liquid to, but when it washed out it stayed copper for a few months.  She hated it, but it actually looked pretty good!

 Amber had a dance competition in Logan.  Its the first dance competition I have sat through, mostly because I couldn't leave (it was 2 hours away).  Soran and I had fun watching (see her brace?  She hyperextended her elbow while doing a cartwheel at school.  She LOVES gymnastics).

 Alyssa got asked to junior prom!

 Every time we finish the Book of Mormon we take the kids out to eat.  This time we splurged and went to Teppanyaki.  They had a blast!  It was a great way to celebrate.  

 Christian had his Eagle Scout project fundraiser.  He did a 5k/fun run.  It was a gorgeous March day (we were super blessed because after this it snowed and was freezing again for another month) and was well attended and he made over $1000 to feed the Haitians.  I was super proud to watch him.

While we were at the Logan dance competition, Scott took the other kids to the Sciencepalooza.  What a nice dad!  

Love day

I love Valentines day.  I love to give things to my kids, the kids at school, and of course to my very own personal Valentine, Scott.  What's more fun than spreading love?

 I always get my kids a special treat for Valentines, and this year a lady in our ward was selling cookies.  They turned out gorgeous!  And even better, they were delicious!

 My and my Valentine

 Alyssa heading out to the Valentines dance.  I posted this pic cause it is so natural.  I love her.

 Soran had FHE and we played love games and then wrote nice things about each other on notes on our backs.  It was a fun evening.  

Livi was adament she wanted a fox, so we made a foxy Valentine box.

Scott's 40th

Well, the highlight of his birthday was his woot bag of crap.  He got a letter, which means you get a another even bigger bag of crap.  What a deal!  He was so excited.  We did get some pretty good stuff out of it though.  We also took him to Subzero and went to St. George for the weekend.  The real gift was going to Haiti with Christian in April.  Happy birthday, my love!  I am so glad I get to spend every day with you.

New Year!

We had a great new year.  We went to the Henlines and had egg rolls and watched all 3 or 4 Pirates of the Caribbean.  We also played games and chimes.  They were making fun of us for the chimes, but the adults played longer than the kids!

 We went sledding with the Reeces.

 We went on adventure to Salt Lake's "China Town"

 Scott and I went snowshoeing for the first time at Sundance with Tiffany and Branden.  It was beautiful!  

Catch up--December 2016

I hate to only do updates every 6 months, but that is when I have a break from school.  That last post was weird and had a lot of misspellings.  I was writing it while trying to take care of a kid in the LRR.  He kept looking at my computer and I didn't want him to see I was writing about him so I wrote a blog update.  But it was choppy.
Anyway, WOW!  Here we are again.  I keep thinking life will slow down, but it doesn't.  It just keeps going.  It has been a crazy few months.  But we will start with December.  We had a great Christmas season.  I would also like to add how grateful I am for the time to remember our Savior and His sacrifice in coming to the earth.  I love the quote in Life of Pi, 'Humanity sins but it's God's Son who pays the price?... What a downright weird story. What peculiar psychology.' 
How strange that instead of reigning from on high, God would come and pay the price for our sins.  And how lucky we are.  

 7 Peaks North Pole--it was a warm night and fun.

 Liv and I on the tricycles.

 Meeting Santa!  Alyssa was too big for his lap, I think she'd break him.  And Christian was just too cool.  Lucky for him Santa brought him a present anyway.

 Gingerbread houses!

 Livi in her Christmas concert

 Saying good-bye to the cabin.  It was bittersweet.  No one had enough time to really enjoy it, but hard to not be there anymore.  

 Scott and I went to the Christmas Carol with the Mangums.  It was so good!  Might be a new tradition.

 We had the most amazing Secret Santa this year.  He brought the best presents!  One night we got a giant saran wrap ball with candy and a movie in it.  We invited the Pagnanis over and unrolled it and watched the movie.  The last day we got chimes, which was a great gift and we've used it way more than I would have thought!

 Spoiled, spoiled kiddies!

 Prime rib dinner

Merry Christmas 2016!

Puzzles.  It's a weird angle