Sledding!

 We went sledding with our aunts and cousins. Aunt Whitney had invited us to go and we called everyone to make it happen. Aunt Mandy, Aunt Bree with Dani and Aunt Roni with Shelbi, Scott, and Chloe came. Whitney brought a couple kids in her neighborhood too.

 We showed up with a little disk sled and a cardboard sign. There was a guy that felt bad for us using cardboard so he let us use one of his big tubes.

 The kids did great trading off and we discovered that the sign was a great sled for an adult with a child to go down on. Roni came a little late and so Whitney decided to get a couple sleds to add to the pot. She got a toboggan style and another disk.

Bree and I didn't go down the hill. I was recovering from being sick so much in December and Bree is expecting their second baby. I enjoyed the fact that my kids could go down by themselves and haul their own sled back up the hill.

More Christmas 2011

We had a great Christmas morning. We first wrote our present we would give to Jesus. He has a little red stocking that hangs with the rest of ours and we think of one or more things we can do for him during the year. The girls want to try to be more reverent and Derrick wanted to try to listen more. Kevin and I want to try to go to the temple more often and a few other things.
The kids enjoyed the main gift we gave them so much that it was difficult to get them to open the rest of the gifts under the tree. KayDee was thrilled with her pink legos, Derrick loved the legos he got and Samantha adored her Madam Alexander doll. I love that they love their gifts!
We drove up to Kevin's parents and went to church with them and spent the day. The kids love the time they get to spend with grandma and grandpa.

Christmas 2011

 This year the Town Christmas program was a play. It was “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” and the kids put in a lot of hours to make it as good as it was Christmas Eve.

 Samantha had two lines as one of the extra girls and Derrick was a wise man. KayDee was an angel. They all sang the songs. It was fun and definitely a bit of a change.

 Santa Claus came later and we were quite worried about how long it would take him to call the kids names. There were a lot of visitors this year and Santa attends to them too.

 We were happy to have him call their names about half way through and the kids were delighted with a scrap booking kit,

 a Captain America shield

and paints and poster paper.

Happy Birthday to Me!

KayDee: "Mom, your birthday is this close to Christmas?"
Me: "Yep, 6 days"
KayDee: "WOW!" Eyes sparkling, cheesey grin, super pleased squeal, happy dance etc...
I wish I was this pleased about my birthday being close to Christmas. That made my day.

My kids did 32 things for me around the house for my birthday. Kevin took me out to a movie and dinner the next day and the kids baby sat themselves. They are getting so old and I appreciate that they do their best to get along while were gone. I had a great birthday!

Samantha in The Lion King

 Samantha tried out for the play The Lion King and got the part of Zazu in the first cast. This is a rare occurrence for this performing group since they don't give main parts to new kids. She was very excited and she memorized all her lines and the songs. She went to practices once a week for an hour and a half for the months of Oct, Nov and the beginning of Dec.

 The second night she played a lioness and did a great job dancing with the other lionesses.

We are so proud of her since she did such a great job and followed through with all of the practices and remembered her lines. She wants to do another play and I told her she could after she had some other experiences (like basketball).

The NFR

 Kevin and I were able to go to the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas this December with Kevin's parents and his brother Travis with his wife BreeAnna. I had never been and so it was really fun to see how a professional rodeo goes. We stopped and looked at all the vendors before we went in and notice how I am the same size as the tire? I could have climbed in the rim! We had a good laugh.

We got our photo taken at one booth and won some other random prizes. The rodeo itself was really great. I really enjoyed the team roping and the steer wrestling. Thanks to Kevin's brother DJ and wife Whitney for babysitting. We had a great time!

Derrick's 8th Birthday

Look at all those boys! Derrick had so much fun with all his cousins on his birthday. I made a cake for him and we transported it up to my sister Diane's house to have during the Christmas service project we did this year. Derrick's birthday ended up on Thanksgiving day this year and so we celebrated it the day before to allow more focus on Derrick.

Man O War Ship. Derrick was happy to help buy this ship. It was a little out of our price range. We were lucky and found it on ksl classifieds for a lot less.

Derrick was baptized the next week into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We have talked to him about his choice and he said he wanted to be baptized. He has a great testimony of Jesus Christ as our Savior. He loves going to church and reading his scriptures. He has his own hymn book which he bought with his own money last year and loves to use it. He is good at reading the scriptures and really knows the stories. We love to hear him sing with the primary since he has such a strong voice. He really tries to follow the rules and make good choices. He knows when he feels the spirit and says thoughtful prayers.
Our little boy is growing up and doing so wonderful. We are so happy he is part of our family. He is so much fun and loves to be a part of what we do. He is thoughtful and sensitive to others. He loves camping and riding bikes. He is very coordinated and has a great inventive mind. He plays the piano and is now getting into sports. He is very excited to play baseball this spring.