Proof that we did something this year!

A frequent question I'm asked by my kids is "Are you EVER going to update your blog?"  I wish I could say that I loved blogging, that it's therapeutic for me.  Frankly, it's a pain.  But I'm realizing that it's a way for me to keep a family history.  And so my kids can remember that we actually did some fun things this year, here is a major catch up!

January
Holy cow, am I really that far behind?? Here we go.  Justin turned the big 12 this year.  Since he would be going to scout camp for the first time this year, he got lots of camping gear.  And since the Pinewood Derby has fallen on Justin's birthday the past few years, we also got to go watch Troy race his Lightning McQueen car at the race.  Justin is a great kid and looks so handsome passing the sacrament each week.

February
Adam got me some beautiful flowers for Valentine's Day.  We went to a co-worker's wedding that night and then to a fondue party at our good friends', the Parry's. Whitney also turned 15 this month. We had a family party on her birthday, and cousin Carter happened to be down at the same time to celebrate with us.  On President's Day, Whitney had a group of friends come over to celebrate, but she made Adam take all the little kids to grandma's for the day :)  They played the Kinect, ate food, played outside, and basically hung out like teenagers do.  Dallin also lost his first tooth this month.  And he's only in preschool!  Justin performed in a Greek play at his school and did a great job as Paris.

 March
For spring break this year, we did something totally different.  Instead of going to California or a warm place, we headed to the snow in Brianhead!  We rented a cabin from one of our neighbors, and played with the Puriri, Maher, and Niederhauser cousins.  The cabin was so much fun, and the kids partied it up all week.  Dancing, sledding, pool table, Foosball, and lots of food and hot cocoa were how we spent out time.  Adam, Whitney, Justin and I took a day to go snowboarding.  It was a lot of fun, but Whitney doesn't remember any of it since she took a bad fall and suffered a concussion.  She's fine now, but it was a little scary for her at the time.  That picture of Dallin was after I had read the Lorax to him and he must have been so bored with it that he was out for the night!

April
In April, Audrey turned 7!  She is always so excited with anything she gets but this year she LOVED getting a karaoke machine.  This girl loves singing in a microphone!  She and Troy also competed in their school's field days.  Troy enjoyed his running events, and Audrey and her friend Millie loved the three-legged race.  Adam still works in the yard whenever he can, and we always have such beautiful spring flowers to enjoy every year.

 For Easter this year, we had the traditional egg hunt in the Puriri's back yard with cousins.  Someday our yard will have enough trees and bushes to hide eggs in!

We made our Easter Cream Puffs and this year they actually puffed up like real cream puffs are supposed to look.  Don't know what I did right this time!  We also enjoyed a lovely Easter dinner over at Puriri/Blunck's backyard.  My mom has such gift with presentation.

April was a very busy month as you can see!  Audrey, Dallin, and I were able to go up to baby Maren's baby blessing in Salt Lake while the boys had their piano recital here at home.  In April I also took the kids to the Kite Festival (which I vow every year that I will never go again, but somehow I keep going).  Whitney performed in Snow Canyon High School's Musical Review along with two other members of our Young Women.  Whitney has definitely caught the acting bug and can't wait to be in all the school's plays.  She also was awarded at her NJHS banquet this month- we're proud of all of her accomplishments.  Troy turned 10 on the last day of April!  He was excited with yet another Lego set (how many do we have now?) and his homemade ice cream cake!  Troy is a great kid and still amazes us with his artistic abilities.

 Well, that at least catches me up through April!  More to come...

December

Only one month behind now!  As you can see I'm loving the collages for catching up a lot of photos.  On to December!  It's been several years since we made gingerbread houses so it was time to try them again.  I bought two houses this year, one for the boys and one for the girls (I'm pretty sure there was a lot of fighting involved in our last attempt which is why it's been several years).  Having two houses was a big hit!  The boys came up with some very creative  ideas like an ice pond, a bird bath, and Santa sticking out of the chimney.  Not to be outdone, the girls made an igloo, an owl, and two reindeer.  We declared both houses winners!

Adam also celebrated his birthday this month.  Only one more year until a very significant birthday (cough- 40- cough!).  Adam was a very good sport this year and let me plan a neighborhood Christmas party on his birthday.  Instead of doing neighbor gifts, Jodi Goodrich and I invited the whole ward boundary to a neighborhood party where we shared treats with eachother, had hot cocoa, and donated to the St. George Soup Kitchen.  It was a cold, drizzly night but with some fire pits set up outside, everyone had a great time.

On Christmas Eve Eve (we call it Christmas "Adam"), the cousins all came to our house to reenact the nativity.  Baby Van Niederhauser made the perfect baby Jesus, being only a couple of weeks old.  Audrey loved holding him as Mary.  Justin and Mikaera were narrators, Dallin, Marcus and Truman were shepherds, Tali, Whitney, and Uncle Ben were the wisemen, and Troy, Rani and Eva were angels.  Justin and Whitney also accompanied a few songs on the piano.  It was a very cute nativity, and some very creative costumes, involving Star Wars robes and light sabers!

After the nativity, we headed into the kitchen to decorate Christmas cookies.  Big mess (which is why we did it the day before Christmas Eve) but a lot of fun for the cousins to be together.

On Christmas Eve, we took our family and drove up to Pine Valley in search of some snow.  It was actually pretty dry all through Central and Pine Valley so we headed off on a trail and finally found some good snow (and subsequently got our van stuck).  We had a lot of fun sledding and everyone loved the hot cocoa at the end.  I loved going out to Brick Oven for dinner afterward so I didn't have to cook or clean anything up that night!

On Christmas morning, we were informed that poor Audrey had been throwing up all night in her bathroom, but Whitney wouldn't let her come get us because we told them not to leave their rooms until 7:00 am. Bad parents!  She perked up for the presents but then was so sick the rest of the day.

Some of the kids' favorite gifts this year were a new cell phone for Whitney (she hasn't stopped texting), bikes for Justin and Audrey, and Lego sets for Troy and Dallin. Since it was Sunday, Adam took the kids to church at 1:00 while I stayed home with sick Audrey (and actually Dallin since he fell asleep right before it was time to go).  I heard the choir did a great job that day, but I was snuggling on the couch with Audrey holding a bowl in front of her chin :(

Webb cousins drove down from Salt Lake later that day and we ended up having a nice Christmas dinner with them, and Grandma and Grandpa Webb as well.  We played with them for the next few days and enjoyed some gorgeous days in Snow Canyon (again!), local parks, and our backyard.  All in all, a very busy, fun-filled December!

November catch up

November 1st was Dallin's 5th birthday.  We celebrated by taking his four best friends to the park and Del Taco for lunch.  Easiest birthday party ever!  Dallin of course wanted another Star Wars themed cake, maybe some day he'll outgrow his Star Wars obsession.

November also brought the end of soccer season.  Dallin was the only one to do soccer this year and he really loved it.  He may not have been the top scorer of this team, but he was a defensive animal  and was always kicking it out of the pile-ups so that one of his teammates could score.

Whitney participated in a special Veteran's Day program out at Sun River.  Her middle school choir performed, and let's just say when they sang all of the individual songs for the armed forces and all these old retired men stood up, there was not a dry eye to be found! She is really enjoying her choir class this year and wants to try out for Madrigals at the high school next year.

Justin and Troy had their piano recitals with their new teacher Melissa Ord.  Troy did great, even with just playing with one arm (did I forget to mention that he broke his arm AGAIN?)  Justin was the last performer and he literally blew everyone away with his Viva la Vida.  So proud of the both of them!

Thanksgiving was spread out over several days this year.  We had dinner Thursday with the Blunck family in the Puriri's back yard and the weather was gorgeous!  There were name cards spread out over several tables so everyone got to sit by various cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, etc.  Friday we had another dinner, this time over at the Webb's.  Saturday was another beautiful day (are we noticing a theme with St. George weather??) so we went to Snow Canyon with Webb cousins.  The Hughes and Niederhausers met up with us a little later and we had a great time hiking around beautiful Snow Canyon.  It's literally less than 5 miles away from our house, but we don't go there very often.  That needs to change!

We also took new family pictures in November.  Once again Robyn Lamoreux did a fantastic job making us look good.  I loved the color scheme this year, those fall leaves were so gorgeous.  Did I mention I love living in St. George??

 

New Year's Resolution: Catch up on blog!!!

So it's now 2012, and I have LOTS of New Year's Resolutions, one of which is to do "better" with my blog.  I don't want to set myself up for failure by saying that I will blog daily, weekly, or monthly.  Just that I will do "better."  And I will start by catching up from the last few months of 2011.

OCTOBER:  Whitney and Audrey were in Snow Canyon's High School's production of The Wizard of Oz.  They had lots of practices and rehearsals, followed by over a week of daytime and evening performances.  We were all pretty much exhausted by the end, but it turned out really great and the girls had a fun time being in their first "real" performance.  Audrey was a munchkin and Whitney was an Ozian and a Flying Monkey.  It was extra special because Mikelle Atkinson who played Dorothy is on our ward, and Audrey's violin teacher Abbey Hafen was in the orchestra.

I had a birthday in October, can't really remember how old I turned but I'm sure it's old.  I spent the day playing volleyball in the morning, having lunch with my Laurels in the afternoon, and attending Whitney's choir concert that night.

Halloween was a lot of fun this year, especially since Adam's costume was hilarious!  We had a neighborhood party and it was so funny to see him walk up the street and see everyone's reaction.  Maybe he should lay off the desserts though...

Next up, November!