Cousin get-together

Saturday we had a cousin get-together at Bryce's brother Shawn's house. Cousins that live in Las Vegas were in town for the Draper Temple dedication. They had fun playing and goofing off for a few hours. I'm so glad that my kids have cousins that they love. I came from a really small extended family. My dad is an only child and my mom has one brother. So I only had 5 cousins. My kids have so much fun at family gatherings because of the friendships they have with their cousins. They have 20 cousins all together (so far).

Erin, Keaton and Victoria, all age 13.
Tyson and Jace, both age 7

Connor, Tyson, Jeff and Jace, showing me a Superhero pose.

Jordyn, Marlie, Brinley, Claudia and Cambree. They put on a fashion show for us.

Safe kids fair

Last weekend we took the kids to the expo center to the Safe Kid's Fair. The main lure for us to go was so that Connor could see Siderman. When Spiderman came out he ran out spraying crazy string for his webs. It was so funny, Connor was so insulted that we had been telling him that it was going to be the real Spiderman. He said, "That's not real webs! He's just in a costume!" Can't trick a true Spiderman fan! So we left the Spiderman arena and walked around to see the rest of the fair. There was firetrucks, law enforcement vehicles, poison control, immunizations etc.... all stuff to keep your kids safe. It was a good, free, family activity.

It's Spidey!

Not so sure about seeing Spiderman.

Connor in the firetruck with hit fireman hat.
This was a gadget that shows why you need seat belts even in a low impact crash. Pretty effective, they didn't like it though.

Latest Photo Shoot

LEAH
This was a really fun and easy photo shoot. Leah was a great subject, isn't she cute? I think Senior pictures are my new favorite shoots! I have to give a big thanks to my friend Gina for helping me with some photoshop editing. I will be so happy when I am good enough with photoshop to do it all by myself.

Marlie's Wax Museum

The 5th graders at Marlie's school did a wax museum for a history project. Each person chose a person from history and memorized their "autobiography" to present to people as they walked through the museum. Marlie was Sacajawea. She did a great job and looked pretty cute too! Her friend Shelby was Rosie the Riveter and her friend Sabrina was Abigail Adams. I was pretty impressed with how well these kids memorized their parts, some of them were pretty long. Marlie did a really good job and had fun, she loves an opportunity to perform.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!

Our Valentines Day celebrations started on Friday. The kids of course had their Valentine's Day parties at school. I went and helped in Jace's class. I helped with a Bingo game as one of the stations that the kids rotated through. Having 1st graders pass out Valentines too each other is a great way to create pure chaos! It was amazing that the Valentines all got delivered to their destinations!
The first half of my day I spent making sugar cookies. Growing up my mom always made us a giant heart cookie with our name on it. When we came home from school it would be waiting on the counter for us with a valentine and sometimes a small gift. I always loved that so I want to carry on that tradition with my kids. This is the first year I made them the big cookie. I usually make heart cookies but I made them their own special big one this year.

Keaton had his Klondike campout on Friday night so I saw him off to that. I am so glad that I didn't have to go camping in the snow with him! That just doesn't sound like fun to me.

Bryce is such a great husband! He always is very thoughtful on holidays. In the morning he brought me an array of chocolate treats to me while I was still in bed. What made that even better was that he was up and dressed ready to take Marlie to her basketball game at 8:oo! He came home from Marlie's game with bags of groceries to make breakfast for us. He made waffles with fresh berries and whip cream, bacon and fresh mango and kiwi.(He bought the good orange juice too!)

Keaton made it home in the afternoon without any frostbite. He was really tired and fell asleep on the couch soon after he got home. He said he didn't sleep very much because it was too cold.

Bryce and I had reservations to P.F. Changs for dinner. It has kind of become a tradition to go there on Valentine's Day. It was soooooo good! I love amost everything we have tried there. Of course the lettuce wraps are the best. We had two of our very favorites, Honey shrimp with candied walnuts (I'm allergic to walnuts so Bryce eats those) and Beef Chow Fun. YUMMMY!

We got a chocolate dome dessert to go. We went to the movies and saw Push. I can't say I recommend it. It wasn't terrible but it is definitely a one-timer. I even almost fell asleep and I usually don't do that in a movie theater, at home on the couch, yes, but it takes a lame movie for that to happen in the theater. So we had a fun night out together. After we got home I was relaxing on the couch with my laptop and Bryce walks in and hands me these huge, beautiful, chocolate dipped strawberries. He really spoiled me today, what a lucky girl I am to have such a wonderful husband.

LESA AND ME

I met my good friend Lesa at Gardner Village today to have lunch. We haven't seen each other for about 4 years! We met each other our freshman year at BYU. We lived in the same dorms and had a lot of crazy, fun times together. I had a little part in introducing her to her husband, so that is fun to reminesce about. It was great seeing her again and picking up where we left off, just like we see each other all of the time. That's what is so great about having a good friend, things don't change over time. I love Lesa, she is one of the sweetest people I know. So the first picture is us today and the next is us 20 years ago! I asked Lesa today why she never told me my hair was too big! She said because in the 80's that's how hair was, the bigger the better!
I'm so grateful that I have had this wonderful friendship that has lasted 2o years and counting. We are planning to have a BYU reunion sometime soon. It will be so fun to get all the girls together again.

Foggy Saturday Morning

We got up early on Saturday for Marlie's basketball game (who plans these times anyway? Don't they know people like to sleep in on Sat.?). It was so foggy driving to her game. It was hard to see but I actually like fog, I think it looks so cool! I know I'm weird. We don't get heavy fog here very often so when we do I just think it's fun.

Marlie is having a lot of fun playing basketball. She has a lot to learn still but has fun anyway. Her team hasn't lost yet so that is exciting for them. She has a great coach that is positive and very patient, bless his heart! I'm so grateful when we get a good coach. It is great how they volunteer their time to teach these kids. Unfortunately we've had some bad ones too. So I'm always so grateful when a good one comes along and is a great influence for my child.