Roof

I finally remembered to take a picture. This is our house with the new pitched roof on it. I wish I would have taken a picture of the before flat roof because the comparison looks amazing. Kevin's parents were able to get the roof on our house in amazing time. We are so grateful they made this priority to help preserve the house. They were so gracious since their house needs some updates too!

Pinewood Derby

 Derrick went to his first Pinewood Derby and was so excited.

 Dad, Mom and Derrick worked on the car. Dad got it cut to the right shape. Derrick sanded it down for a couple of days and Mom helped paint it.

Derrick won every race except for one. That one track had a little more friction on it. But after racing the second place scout a few more times, we were sure he was first. He got first place overall and was able to go to the big race a few weeks later where he got a second and third place for the two he raced. He also was awarded best paint job.

House Work

This is where we go every weekend. We have come a long way since we started at the beginning of the year and we are close to getting the inspection done. We have moved walls, put in new windows, pulled out the old water pipe and replaced it with new pipe. We've put in new electrical boxes and moved wiring.
Fortunately we have had help from our families. My parents have come down a couple times to help with the electrical boxes and stringing new water pipe. DJ has put in our new braker box. Travis comes in now and then to help with whatever we may be doing at the time. We are so grateful for their help!
It's starting to look like a home and makes me more excited to move. We plan to finish the plumbing and the electrical so we can do the inspection. Next comes insulation and sheet rock.
The kids have done so well while we've been working long days. They spend their time watching movies, playing video games, playing outside, flying kites, digging in the dirt and doing dishes! We appreciate their help in keeping themselves busy and getting along so well with each other so we can concentrate on the house.
I'll post more updates as we go along.

Farm Weekends

 We have been going to the farm to work on our house every weekend and this weekend Samantha got a cut on her head. She and Derrick were helping their Uncle Travis wind up some line and the handle flipped back under strain and hit her in the head a couple of times. It was more scary than anything and she healed really quickly.

 We haven't taken pictures of our time over the weekend so we took some snapshots during dinner.

I just keep forgetting the camera so I took these with my cell phone so we would have a few.

 Yes, they have chipmunk cheeks full of dinner.

The kids do have fun while they are there and their cousin Dani is always thrilled to be with them.

Kevin's Birthday

 Kevin celebrated his birthday at the farm. The cell phone's camera had to do this round. I love how he uses those candles to warm his hands. We were at the farm for the weekend doing more work on our house there.

Kevin does such a great job providing for our family and meeting our needs. He's a great dad and husband and we are so lucky we get to be with him!

Basketball

 This was our first round of basketball and the kids absolutely loved it. After their first game I was really concerned about making sure they were aggressive enough, so I paid them a nickle for when they got the ball and a quarter for each basket they made. It did help but after a couple of games the kids were so concerned about the referee calling fouls, traveling or double dribble that we had to have some stern talks with them about how the game is played. They didn't dare dribble the ball! I told them they are supposed to make mistakes and if the ref makes a call on them its okay. If they get kicked out of the game for hitting or kicking or being mean then that's not okay. I had to double the nickle when they dribbled and to shoot the ball (without making the basket) and that helped significantly.

These were the pictures I took behind the photographer. Then I matted my own so I wouldn't have to pay $10 a picture. The kids were pretty upset when they played their last game and hadn't received a picture yet. I had to reassure them that I was making them and now I hurried and did it!

Happy Birthday Samantha!

Samantha had two birthday parties. One was at Uncle DJ and Aunt Whitney's house to celebrate Dani, Chloe, DJ and her birthday together. Aunt Whitney made the fun cakes with sparklers!
The next party we did at the farm on her birthday.

Samantha turned 10 and we love having a 10 year old in our house! She is starting to grow up and her interests are changing with that. She loves to go to activity days and do the activities there with her friends. She is good at nearly everything that she tries. She enjoys acting, singing, sports, and dancing. We wish we could keep up with all those interests! She is patient with us and allows our budget and schedules to do one at a time. Samantha loves to read and has found some fun books to enjoy. She does great in school too and has really enjoyed writing of all kinds especially poetry and narratives! She is growing her hair out and is happy that her old bangs blend in completely. This year she did not get a party with her friends since we have been busy fixing up the farm house. She has been thoughtful of our time. She really loves the movies Despicable Me and The Parent Trap. Samantha is still playing the piano and is preparing for our family recital. Samantha keeps track of our family scripture reading and makes sure we read out of the "big" ones every Sunday. We love our Samantha girl and are so happy she is part of our family. She is beautiful, smart, fun and thoughtful. Members of our ward have said that they are sad since they won't get to see Samantha at age 16 when she'll make all those boys crazy with how pretty she'll be. We don't want to rush that! She really has a glow about her!

Cub Scouts

 Derrick is officially in Cub scouts and earned his Bobcat at the first pack meeting.

 The best way to put the pin on is upside down.

 Good thing I wear my scout shirt so there would be an easy place for him to put the mother pin.

 Hugs!

Derrick also got to show off our reward system in cub scouts. My wolf pack made it. The boys earn beads when they wear their shirt, bring their book, and for being on time. Extra beads are given when their pack does stuff together. It really works too! I've been the wolf leader for over a year and the boys really need a reason to wear those shirts, bring books and be on time! They receive a reward for the day if they do one of those three that is randomly selected on that day. After they receive 50 beads then they get a grand prize.
I was inspired by going to Pow Wow and came up with this idea after hearing the system. It is made out of a piece of scrap wood I found in my yard and I sanded it. We painted it and then hammered in large nails for each boy. We used yarn and a paper clip to hang them up. The boys have to remove the paper clip and thread the bead over the loop to add them. There is a bead tied to the bottom of the piece of yarn to keep the beads on. I love it when simple things work!

Cousin Time

 I was able to babysit for my sister LeAnn while she and her husband went to Hawaii. I only went for a couple nights over the weekend and we had a great time! The girls were happily dressing up and the boys were sword fighting.

We were able to go to the park on bikes, scooters and pulling the wagon. We played baseball as well as we could and Mason had a great hit right to my gut. Man! It's been a while! All I could do is laugh! Don't worry, I recovered quickly. We watched movies, played games and ate! We were happy to have that time with cousins and would love to do it again!

Snow

We have to get one snowman made at our house this year. The kids are getting older and know just what to do. Then they come inside and warm up with hot chocolate!

Bathroom Sink Remodel

 Since we are planning on moving we figured we should so some of our projects to make the home better for those who will rent it. We have had the tile to do the sink since we did the shower 5 years ago but couldn't decided what to do with the cupboard and so it sat. We decided to see if we could sand off the light blue paint and old stain. We were pleasantly surprised to see beautiful wood underneath with little effort.

Good thing we finished it early enough to enjoy it. Some of the other projects we need to do are a little more intense so we hope that we can get them done before June!

New Year Party

We went to Kevin's parents to have a New Years Day party on Jan 1st. Everyone was there except the girls (Suzy and family and Mandy) in Kevin's family. We ate lunch and played games and watched movies. Bree made a super rich hot chocolate. Roni made cinnamon rolls and I planned out the cheese fondu. We had plenty to eat and really enjoyed each others company. Our kids got to play with their cousins too.

New Years Off-Roading

We went off-roading with the Edwards over New Years. We went Saturday so we wouldn't have to go on Sunday. We decided to take some winding trails near our house and ended up pushing brush toward the end to get to a road that would take us back home.
We had a great time and enjoyed our time with our friends!

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!