Sunday Morning

For Sunday morning activities James and Ethan made a model plane that the Jeppesen's gave my boys.  You can see them in the background of the first pic. working on it. Conner was pushing Owen around on this toy, and to help him feel more secure he made him a seat belt with his blanket.  Owen loved playing with Conner.

Final product.  It turned out great.  Ethan thought this picture was funny, because it looks like the plane is on fire from his shirt.

Family Hike

We went for a family hike out at White Rock yesterday.  It was such a nice day, which is really bad because we need snow, but I love the warm weather. 

Ethan was so cute and creative.  We crossed a little bridge where we trip trapped over the troll, and he said we were enter "Fairy Tale Land." We saw where the Big Bad Wolf lives, and the Three Little Pig's house (except the house of straw it blew away), the Three Bears home, they learned to lock the door. Then we met up at Rapunzel's tower and had a head bopper war.  When we continued our hike we found the witches house.  Later we left Fairy Tale Land, and enter Greek Mythology land.  Ethan was sure that we were lost at this point, but we found the trail. We were sure to stay clear of where Hades lives.  Ethan said it was the best hike, because it was a long hike, and long hikes make it the best.  It was a way fun, much needed hike. 

Who Rocks the House? Chloe Rocks the House!

Chloe did mini cheer this week.  She was in Draylie's group.  They learned a little dance, and then they did a cheer.  She did so good.  She was the only girl not wearing black pants though because I didn't read the whole note (oops), but she was easy to "spot" in her cheetah pants, hahaha, excuse the pun.

You Lost Another Tooth?!?!?!

Ethan lost another tooth on the top.  He really lost it at school and didn't realize it was gone till later.  He now is missing 3 teeth on top.  We don't know why it is taking so long for the other two to come in.  He now has a huge gap.

"Cheetah Queen"

I got these pajamas for Chloe from a friend who listed them on the 24/7 site.  Chloe loves them!  She is way into cheetahs right now, and has been calling herself the cheetah queen.  She is a cute cheetah.

Owen is 10 Months Old!!!

This little guy went from 4 lbs. 9 oz. at his lowest to roughly 22 lbs. in just 10 months.  He is such a good healthy baby.  He is so close to crawling.  He will get up on his knees and rock back and forth, and even go a few crawls forward, but then he decides scooting is what he prefers.  He is starting to open up cupboards and drawers and pull things out, not to much though, I know he will master this soon.  He waves, and points, and goes back and forth on who he loves the most, me or James.  He is still in our room (ugh), and still wakes up sometimes at night.  It is really hard not to get up with him when he is in our room.  He loves his siblings, and all the attention they give him, he enjoys being apart of them when they play.  He is not lacking any love, he is adored by everyone.  We love him so much.  

I took these pictures right before bed.  He was hungry, and tired, and not very excited for pictures.  I couldn't get him to smile, and when he completely broke down I decided we could take the pictures the next day.

Oh, look how much happier he is in the morning.

He still doesn't like being put in his car seat for no reason.

He likes Ethan in his car seat.  The bottom left picture of Owen with Ethan and Chloe he looks like, "seriously Mom, this is not a good idea."

Look how big he is in his crib.

This is his first time in the "Grandkid's highchair". This highchair has been through every grandkid starting with Brett.  It might be a little yucky, but the kids love it. We put him in it at 10 months exactly.

Bluff Balloon Festival 2015!

This is what I put on face book.  No I didn't post all these pictures with it.

Had so much fun this morning at the Balloon Festival in Bluff. So glad Becky, Greg, and Abby could join us. Kristin this made me miss you so much. We enjoyed doughnuts, and hot chocolate in the back of the truck, followed by balloon chasing. Thanks for teaching us the ropes.

Chloe enjoying doughnuts with one of her favorite people.

There was a truck with a little red balloon tied to it, so we got a picture of the boys in front of it.

Left to Right: Greg, Abby (Greg's cousin), Conner, Becky, Chloe, Bryant, Owen, James.

Chloe and Ethan wanted a picture in front of their favorite balloons. Chloe's pink one is right above her, and Ethan's blue and yellow one is right above him. 

Owen loved eating doughnuts. Really who doesn't?

Kids getting ready to go balloon chasing in the back of the truck with aunt Becky.

 Balloon chasing!  I think this is the funnest part.  We but a futon mattress in the back of the truck, and chase after the balloons.  We get right up under them sometimes.  It is so fun.

Afterwards we went to Bluff Fort to learn about our Hole in the Rock heritage.

Comments From FB:

Alicia Black Fun!!! I'm going to tell Andy we need to do this next year!

Melissa Aurich Bayless We were there, too! It was pretty neat!

Kristin Smith Black Ohhh Nicole! This brought tears to my eyes!!! That tradition means so much to me - we missed it so much, but had donuts this morning to celebrate anyway! Thank you for thinking of me!

Lindsay Nielson What ?! Fun!!!

Teresa Margaret Pierce That looks so fun...cute pictures 

Scripture Study

After James came home from work he went into the library room and found Chloe on the couch with the scriptures open.  He asked her what she was doing, she said, "I'm studying my scriptures."  What a beautiful girl inside and out.  Proud mama, and daddy.

MONSTER SAK!

I was looking into making one of these.  Haven had one and said she would help me with it. I had been looking into buying the stuffing and fabric, but it was becoming a pricey project, so I put it on hold for a little bit.  When I saw Lisa Mcdonald selling this on 24/7 yard sale I jumped at the chance to buy it.  I got in a bidding war with some guy, so I finally just called them and worked out a price.  $75!  This is an awesome deal.  The filling alone is worth $200 (100 lbs of foam).  Now I don't have to do all that work, and it is way bigger then I was planning on, it filled up the whole back of the truck, and barely made it through the doors.  It is a nice addition to our theater room.  The kids love it.

Yay!!! More Snow

Yesterday it snowed most of the day.  It was great to wake up to a blanket of snow on the ground.  I was sad James, and the boys had to go to work and school. All morning Chloe was playing "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" from her Frozen CD, so it was perfect when Haven's girls came over to join us in building that snowman.  By the time I had me and Ava ready to go out Kreed, Kessia, and Baze had joined us.  I love our neighbor kids.

Look at all of these cute kids, and their snowman named Olaf, can you believe they named him that ;).

(Left to Right: Kreed, Chloe, Ava, Baze, Kessia, and Kellyn)

Kellyn made the little snowman by herself, but Chloe and Kessia wanted in the picture.

Chloe didn't farewell in the snowball fight with Kreed.  She didn't cry though, and she stuck in there.  I ended up having a snowball fight with all the kids (mostly Kreed and Chloe) against me.  Both teams were so good we finally just had to call a truths.  :)

The neighborhood snow angels.

 Ava got tired towards the end, and just laid down on the snow. (top left)

I'm so thankful for the snow, and I am thankful for wonderful kids to enjoy it with.

New Years 2015! SNOW

 We woke up to a new year with a blanket of snow.  We love the snow.  We took down Christmas and then went out to play.  We need more snow to really enjoy the hill on the lot longer, it got muddy fast, but fun. Poor James hasn't had time to get the snowmobile out and going. but hopefully we can get up to the mountain soon.  It is also hard with one snowmobile, you really can't go far.  Next year when Owen is bigger we plan on buying another one and going a lot with the family.

Conner is such a ham.

Random cute pictures.

New Years Eve, Good Bye 2014!

New Years Eve was very uneventful, and that's OK.  Our friends France and Lindsay were moving :(, so we watched there adorable little boys Sam and Bennet.  We love these little guys so much, I'm not happy they moved, but I hope everything goes well for them.

James and I went over to France and Lindsay's to pick some things up that we bought, and stayed a little longer to help them tie up some lose ends.  They are great friends and we are going to miss them.  Lindsay and I became really close in the few months they were here, and by the time they left it was harder then I thought it would be.  I do feel that they will be life long friends, and I really hope to visit them in Texas in the future.

When we got home to our awesome kiddos who were so good to watch the movie and even take care of Owen (he woke up), we broke open the sparkling cider which we drank in fancy cups of course, and then we played board games, (Chloe put herself to bed during this), counted down, and went to bed.  Hope 2015 will be grand.  Hey I am getting caught up on my blog, and that was one of my goals.

CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas eve, we did the traditional decorating of the cookie, ice-cream cone trees.  Then James read "The Night Before Christmas", then we watched the Nativity, and reminded our kids what Christmas is really about.  I like to tell our kids that Santa is a true Christian, and he loves Jesus so much that he wanted to share that love through the giving of gifts to little children, and that's how he started (true by the way).

The kids were so good to wait for us in the hall the next morning.  They really are great, obedient (for the most part) kids.

 When the kids opened up the ping-pong balls and paddles, Bryant said, "Cool, we can take these up to Camp Jackson and play."  

Then I said, "we could snow mobile up there and play in the winter. "

"Yeah, that would be awesome."

Me, "Or, you could just go down stairs and play."  Bry was the most excited.  

We decided this table will help with our goal of having a big room dedicated to, "wholesome recreational activities."  It is so fun.  I challenged Bry the next day to a game, loser has to do the dishes.  I won my 11 year old, and he did the dishes with a smile.  I need to make it closer next time so I can still get work out of him.  :) 

Posing with some of their favorite gifts. (Why wouldn't Conner photo bomb Bry).

Owen is a little emotional.

Then we headed up to my Mom's for the true spoil fest.

 I had the kids circle things they wanted in a Walmart add I had just to give them something to do.  My parents took that to help them get ideas.  Yeah, they pretty much bought everything they circled. Chloe circled the most, and when I asked about a few things my Mom would say, "well she circled it." 

We got to talk to Brett.  No picts. but he looks so good and is doing well.  Then we opened presents and had omelets.  Then we went home and I made rolls while the kiddos played with their new toys.  Before we went to my parents for dinner we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Church for about an hour.  They are so sweet to our kids.  We love them so much.  Dinner was way late at my parents.  After Dustin slaved over the prime rib for hours, his friend said that the rolls were the best part of the meal.  Hahahaha!

We went home exhausted and spoiled.