70 plus degrees and loving it!

I am enjoying the beautiful weather right now. It is wonderful to let the kids go out and ride bikes or play at the park. Lauren had a couple of friends come and play with her after preschool.

Lauren, Avery and Alyssa decided to make sand angels. That is what happens when you live in AZ. No snow angels, just sand angels.

They also made some shoes out of sand. It is fun to have such great friends in the neighborhood.

Bowling at BYU

During our visit with Heidi and her family we took the kids bowling at BYU. We met Ganon at the Wilkinson Center for dinner at the food court after he got off of work. Then, we went downstairs for an adventurous game of bowling. I have to admit that I was somewhat stressed most of the time and did not enjoy myself as much as I should have. Mostly because Bradley wanted to bowl ALL the time. He kept running out to bowl again. Then, if I held hime in my lap, he would scream to get down. Yet, looking back at the pictures and videos... I have to smile because I really enjoy being with my family and all the happiness they bring to me. I should just take Doug's advice and relax.

Lauren entertained herself by putting her face over the air vent.



Anthony learned all of his bowling skills from wii sports!



Seriously... will that ball ever make it to the pins?

Anthony Spelling Bee-Part II

I already posted about Anthony and his Spelling Bee experience, but I wanted to add a video clip that a friend emailed to me. He did such a great job and amazes us all of the time. I am sure that he will do well during the school spelling bee in a few weeks. Best of Luck, Anthony.

Kids sled for the first time!

Well, since we are in Utah during the winter, we decided to do what everyone does this time of year. We took the kids sledding. We bundled everyone up as much as possible and drove to the hills by the Provo Temple. We climbed up the hill and sent everyone back down one or two at a time down the other side.


The sledding did not last long. Lauren and Bradley only went down one time. That was it. It was too cold for them-I guess.


Anthony and Doug made a few more trips down the hill. They liked it a little more than the youngest of the family.


We had a good time, despite the tears and screams of agony.

The Drive to Utah

We decided to drive to Utah and visit my sister and her family over the holiday. We left in the late afternoon on Christmas Day. We made it through the crazy, rainy weather to Las Vegas. We checked in at the Excalibur and got our room upgraded to a suite with a jacuzzi bathtub. NICE! The room was wonderful although we did not stay very long.

After enjoying the food at the buffet, we ventured to CircusCircus to go on some rides at the Adeventure Dome. We had a good time. The kids even got to pose for a picture with their favorite cartoon character-Sponge Bob.

Spelling Bee

Anthony took part in the spelling bee this week at school. He competed against 30 other 2nd and 3rd graders. He came in Second Place. I did not attend the Spelling Bee, but his Grammie said that he spelled some difficult words-like 'atmosphere'. He will be competing against the top winners in the school on January 23rd. He is very excited about it. We plan to practice and prepare this time so that he will make it into the finals. We are very proud of him and love him very much. Keep up the Good work, Anthony!

Santa Claus is Coming to town!

It is a crazy time of year. I have stayed busy with work, kids, shopping, craft projects, etc. Oh, and Doug has been working 12-14 hour days at the temple during its 2 weeks closure for maintenance. He will be done today so we will have him back around the house. We have decorated the tree, we attempted to take family pictures, the kids saw Santa at the Ward Christmas Breakfast and some of the shopping is complete. LIFE IS GOOD!



Here are the kids eating the yummy breakfast at the Ward Christmas Party. You can see that Anthony-with his red, sweaty face-just came in from running around all over.



Bradley was happy to see Santa Clause and grinned from ear to ear. How sweet!



Lauren is playing 'shy' with Santa. Anybody that knows her at all, knows that she is not at all shy.



Anthony is trying to narrow down his list for Santa and debating which one is the most important to request. It has to either be Pokemon or Nintendo related.