Twelve Years and counting

 We celebrated our Family Birthday in early December. Making it 12 years!

Life gets so busy around here. It has been so nice to have Brad home. He was able to take a few days off for Christmas and now for New Years. And with his calling switch, his schedule is "not as busy" Well that depends... But, I've really enjoyed the quality time and the moments during the day when he takes the time to do things with me. Help me as I accomplish the daily mundane tasks. I'm happy to have Brad by my side during the ups and downs of life. I look forward to our weekly dates. I love that we can laugh together. I am so proud of him. He is such a diligent servant of the Lord. I admire his passion he has for the gospel of Jesus Christ. He works dang hard in his job and is really good at it. I like the fact he is known as the risk taker at work. I admire his writing and speaking talent. This life is about learning and growning with your spouse. Helping each other be the best person they can be. I am so thankful to have found such a wonderful man. Did I mention he holds our dog like a little baby? Yeah, that makes me smile too.

Life is good, drink sprite!



Merry Christmas!

Owen and Jaeger have done a lot of Lego movie making with the camera. This is the cast. I like the bearded man.

Off with your head!

 Lucy did one with her cheerleaders. Last week I braved the Lego store at Bellevue Square with all the kids. The kids did great. I treated them to a jamba juice. Lucy didn't want a drink so she chose a cinnamon roll. I think I can count on one hand how many times my kids have been to the mall. So it was a BIG deal. They did great. I even found the free parking lot.  These are Lucy's people from that day.

I see a new tradition happening. I trapped the boys in their room. They are downstairs by the living room with the tree and I didn't want any peaking.

 Our Santa likes this kind of beverage with his cookies.

This year I put a puzzle up. My Mom and Sister are puzzle people. I always do something during the holiday season that reminds me of them. And this was it. We had fun doing it. I think I am turning into a puzzle person. Maybe it was that I knew no one would do it if I didn't do it. But we did it.

See Santa's footprints.

I like this guy's face. Fun little smirk.

Tricks and Garden lights

 Check out Savanah's trick.

 Luke can do a little better and actually touch the top of the fridge.

 Can anyone guess what child of mine this is? The hair is a dead give away. He made it in class.

 We are enjoying Christmas break with friends.

 Savanah and Morgan are making a pretty big Lego house.

 Scouts went the the Garden of lights for pack meeting. We had hot chocolate afterwards. We have done this three years in a row. Jaeger jumped in Lucy's picture. It turned out pretty cool.

 Lucy and I. Last year I lost Luke for a little bit in his place. But we did good this year.

 Jaeger, Caleb, Luke and Owen. This year wasn't as cold.

 This dragon took 200 hrs and has 6,000 lights! And this is one display

Here are my kids. Savanah wouldn't take a picture but I snuck her in.

I included this one so you could see the lights.

Me and my girls. Well, sort of Savanah was tired and being a pill as you can see.

This is what is going on.

Brad & Roger at pack meeting.

We've been pretty busy lately. I feel like I live at the school now a days. Christmas break officially started today. I love my kids being home. I had marked a bunch of stuff on pinterest and asked them all to pick what crafts they would like to do while on break. Owen and Jaeger looked at me like "Mom. Crafts? We don't do stinking crafts. The boys are past the craft phase, well...we'll see about that one.  

 Owen's school has a dinner to raise money for their camp. A group of  kids did a dance for the entertainment part of dinner. They did so good. It was fun to see him interact with everyone. To picture them all grown and hanging out. I was able to get a glance of what it will be like in a couple of years.

 Owen turned 11. That means he is now attending scouts every Wednesday night. And it hit me that he'll be doing this for the next seven years.

The boys were invited to go sledding with their friends. They went up to the pass. They had a blast. AND Savanah cut her hair. I had it up in two little ponies and they were bugging her, so she cut them off. She has multiple "growing out" spots on her head. She doesn't have enough hair to be doing this kind of stuff with. Someday it will be all one length. Someday.  

 Lucy and I were having fun with the camera. She would flip her head up and I would snap snap pictures. And get crazy hair.

 Brad's Mom and Dad came and covered the fireplace hole. We are making progress.

October's Best Pictures!

Our dog, Betty.

She is 6months old this October.

 Jaeger found evidence that Christmas is just around the corner! Yay, for Christmas!

 This is Betty's spot during the day. Sit on couch to look outside. Luke is investigating also.

October's Best Picture:

Brad talking on the cell phone while mowing the lawn.

Lucy turned seven! Lucy had requested Oreo cheesecake. While taking the first couple of bits she decided that cheesecake is still a couple of years away for her pallet liking. But the rest of us enjoyed it. Don't look at the massive crack down the middle. I'm still learning.

This photo is for Brad's family. There is a story they tell of Brad who entertained all the girls at Brad's younger sister's party. Well he was at it again. Look at all these girls focused on him. Minus Lucy, her head fell off.  

 But, no worries we re-attached in time for pictures. For her party she went with cupcakes a little more friendly on her pallet apparently.

Lego Party

My friend, Aimee, through a Lego Party for her son. I had seen these "Lego heads" made from baby food jars on pinterest and knew I had to try to make them. I am super happy with the way they turned out. You spray paint the baby food jar and then make faces on them. Fill them with candy for party favors.

They were a big hit with the boys.

Summer: Royle Slope, scout camp

We had a lot of fun with friends this summer. This is Savanah and Rex.

We met my mom up at Christa's house. We were having so much fun and then...

 Glen Howard fell out of the motor home and broke his hip. It was sad and very scary. But that man is a fighter. He is up and walking around recovering really good. Did I mention he is 82 yrs old. He fell and they took him to Spokane and he wanted to go home to UT so bad. We kept telling him Dad, they are not going to let you go until you can walk. The determination in his eyes was fierce. I learned a lot from his example.

 Christa, revamped her water slide. I think this is the best design so far. It's so fun. It's Luke's turn to make his splash.

 I love this photo. Human family. Below, dog family. That's Betty's boyfriend, Rocky.

Friends eating cookies

Owen's bulls eye at cub scout day camp. Good Job Owen!

 The Webelo group.

 These are my Wolf and Bear scout group. I am their Den Leader.They are so much fun.

Camping at Ocean Shores City

At the end of August our family went camping with the McClung's to Ocean Shores. It was a really nice spot. I highly recommend it. At night you could hear the roar of the ocean as you slept. I didn't even have one tsunami freak out dream. Not admitting I've had them before on ocean trips. Ahem. We had a blast.

                                                   Beautiful sunset.

 While on this beach one of the horses from the ridding guides got free and was running wild around the beach. The kids thought that was pretty cool.

Owen captured the morning steam from our tent.

Lucy is enjoying dinner.

 

Owen and Jaeger slept in their own tent. Dad is teaching them how to pack it up. Owen had a little freak out moment during the night. But over all they did awesome.

We had such a good trip. We got to take our new truck which was squishy but fun.