New Year's Eve

This New Year's Eve was a little different than normal.  Normally we invite family over to our house and we play games all evening.  However, this year we had LOTS of family in town so we decided to have the party at a bigger house, Craig and Sharon's.

Well I'm really glad we changed our normal plans because the day before New Years Eve Klayton and Kambria became sick.  I was really hopefully that they would recover in time for the New Years party, but I was wrong.  We didn't want to share their sickness with anyone else so they stayed home and watched movies that evening.

I stayed home with them the first half of the evening than Jeff came home and he stayed with them the second half of the evening.

She was happy to be in her Princess dress but you can still tell she's sick by looking at her eyes.

Meanwhile there was a party going on at Craig and Sharon's with lots of fun and food.

There was lots of game playing by the little...

and big people.

We really enjoyed having so much family in town over the holidays.  Can't believe it's time to say goodbye and start a new year.

December Door of Fame

Here's our December door of fame. 

We have a little bit of Thanksgiving that didn't make it on our previous door.  I just love the boys turkeys and that Klayton is thankful for "HAWSIS".  I'm thankful for houses too. 

In school Connor was studying measurements so he made a few things that required him to use a ruler.  He also made a snowflake, wreath, and perhaps my two favor things of his were his snowman hand, and colorful window picture (right of snow hand).

In school Klayton was studying gingerbread men.  I love his gingerbread man with the arm missing, the paper reads "I ate the arm."  He made several Gingerbread men, a gingerbread house, and on several occasions he came home singing about gingerbread men.

Recap of our Year

This year I never found time to write our Christmas letter.  I think I'm going to have to write next years letter in September because I feel like when October hits the year flies by until the end of the year.  So instead of a letter, I'm going to do a recap of our year.

Jeff started out this year working for Conoco Phillips in the one department and finishing the year with Phillips 66 working in a different department.  He is heavily involved with our kids activities.  He is the Soccer Academy Trainer for the U8 boys, the head coach of Connor's soccer team, the assistant coach on Klayton's soccer team, and he was recently voted in as the Treasurer of the Soccer Club.  Oh and he is a Scout leader at church.  Life is very busy for him.

Connor thoroughly enjoys being the oldest in the family and likes to exert his "oldest child knowledge" toward his siblings. Kambria is grateful for the help, Klayton however ... not so much.  However, most of the time Connor is a great example to his brother and sister.  He recently turned eight and made the decision to be baptized.  We are very proud of him and the good decisions he has made in his life to be able to take this big step.  He enjoys school, although he would prefer to be back in Kindergarten with Klayton doing the "fun" stuff.  He was acccepted into the GATE program at school this year.  He spends a few hours each Monday with other kids in the district working on projects and learning new things.  Things seem to come to him naturally, I hope it continues that way for him.

Klayton is as energetic and happy as he's always been.   Just a little firecracker.  He loves school and like his brother, seems to be very good at it.  He's in the process of learning to read, which is coming along quit nicely.  The other day he brought me one of Connor's books and couldn't understand why he couldn't read every word.  I told him one step at a time.  In the fall he learned to ride his bike and since then it's been hard to keep him off of it.  Which is a good problem to have in my opinion.  Due to an ear infection that lasted 5 months, we decided to put the second set of tubes in his ears at the beginning of December.  That night at the dinner table as we were talking (normally) he asked why everyone was yelling.  So thankful for modern technology simple surgeries that can stop an ear infection and clear out any build up that was preventing him for hearing properly.  

Kambria is miss happy-go-lucky most days.  She loves the outdoors, water, and having her hair done.  She is a typical girl - she loves everything pink, shoes, purses, and thinks there is something wrong when her fingernails aren't painted. She LOVES anything Princess; dolls, figurines, dresses, dishes, cartoons, it doesn't matter as long as it has a Princess on it she loves it.  This summer, while in the backyard, she fell and broke her wrist.  Being that we were in the water Every. Single. Day. we decided to go for a water cast, it was definitely a life saver.  After several attempts, and my claims to her being potty trained, she finally really trained herself at the end of this year.  YES!!!!!  Our last one is out of diapers.


As for me I'm as busy as ever.  We put our house on the market, for sale by owner, for 11 months this year.  On average we had one person come look per week, which meant lots and lots of cleaning during the children's nap time for me.  I'm currently the Primary President of our Ward and I so enjoy it.  I'm constantly learning something new by the sweet spirit of the children and their testimony of Christ.  I am still working from home watching kids.  This fall I changed my hours to follow the school calendar, so I only have teachers kids.  I feel so blessed to be able to devote my day time to the kids I watch, and the evenings and holidays to my own children.  I feel like my life is surrounded by children, which is how I would prefer it.  This fall I ran my first half marathon.  It was definitely a challenge to train for it but it was worth every minute of it. 

This year we went on our first "real" family vacation.  I only say first "real" because most of our trips are short and not too far from home.  However this year we took a big trip that took us to the Grand Canyon, BYU campus, Temple Square, Denver, and camping at Estes Park, CO.  We had such a great time really enjoying ourselves and getting to spend so much quality time together.

2012 was a great year, can't wait to see what 2013 has in store for us.

It's Great to be 8

Our rule following, book reading, video gaming son Connor recently turned eight.  I think I'm still in denial about this one.  This means in another eight years he'll be old enough to drive. Yikes!!!!  These kids are growing up WAY too fast.

Here's EIGHT things we love about our Connor:

1. Smart - Although this little man would much rather be kicking a ball or playing a game on the computer, he's got book smarts.  Sometimes I think he catches on to things too quickly but maybe I just still see him as my little boy.  This year he's been enjoying GATE, for gifted and talented students, a program his daddy was in many moons ago.












2. Happy - On most days - most of the time - Connor is smiling. 

 On this day I couldn't get Connor to stop laughing and Klayton to stop making silly faces.  These boys are a hoot.

3. Healthy - I call Connor my veggie boy because he'll eat almost any veggie.  I've heard him on more than one occasion say "I shouldn't eat that because it's not healthy for me."  What eight year old turns down treats?  However,  he loves himself some sweets too.

Stats: 

50 1/2" - 90th Percentile

52 lbs. - 50th Percentile

4. Has a good heart - He's so compassionate and considerate of others (Unless they are playing a game against him)

5. Rule Follower - No matter what the rule is, whether it's placing check marks on his daily chore chart, or placing his lunch box on the counter when the gets home, or doing his homework without being asked; if it's a rule he will try to follow it.

6.Funny - He bought a Phenis and Ferb joke book at the book fair last year and he's always telling us new funny jokes to make us laugh.

7. Athletic - Just like his dad, Connor has a passion for sports.  And he seems to get his coordination from his father, thankfully.  Haha!!!

8. He loves Christ - He's always reminding us to read our scriptures and say our prayers at night. For his eighth birthday we got him a new set of scripture and a new scripture cover.  On several occasions I've found him reading his new scriptures in his bed.  I hope one day he'll make a great missionary.

 On December 29th, Connor was baptized:

  We had almost all of Jeff's family in town for the holidays.  It was so nice to be able to include them in Connor's program.  Most of my family was able to make it too, which made for a big crowd.  We just loved having them join us on our special occasion.

 Ready for the big event.

 I'm so glad Connor made this great choice in his pathway back to be with Heavenly Father.  He's been a great example to his little brother and sister, and I hope they follow in his footsteps.

I really wish I could have gotten a picture with all of  our family.  However, by the time we left most of our family was gone.  But that's okay, we still got this great picture of our little family.

To capture the moment of this special birthday, I decided to take a few pictures in our front yard:

 Happy Eighth birthday Connor!!!

Bastings Bowl - Continued

On day 2 of our competition we met at the church for a delicious breakfast made by Grandma Vicki, followed by more fun and games.

 Everyone ready to watch the kids go through the obstacle course.

I took pictures of each of the kids going through different parts of the obstacle course - here's the course in order:

Summersault - Meagan

 Tunnel - Kambria

 Hopscotch - Connor

 Tricycle - Kayla

Tricycle - Tanner

 Ball in the bucket - Klayton

 Slide - Maddie (sorry Maddie I didn't get a better picture of you)

 Walking the line - Austin

 Running Ladders - Sariah

 Crab-walk - Derek

 Crab-walk - Jessie

Crossing the finish line - Caty

1st Place - Connor
2nd Place - Tanner
3rd Place - Tied between Maddie and Sariah

Next we played a round of shooting hoops:

Each person took turns shooting baskets at different pointss of the court.

The girls shot a little closer

And the boys shot further out.

I took a picture of everyone participating but I only included a few because you can only look at so many pictures of people making baskets before you get bored.  However, if you've made it this far into my post I commend you.
Kristi won the basketball competition
2nd - Sharon
3rd - Jeff
4th - Kelsey
5th - Matt

 Next we moved on to the Adults competition of Minute to Win It.  Each of our competitions were to be completed within a minute.  We drew out of a hat to pick partners and our challenge:

Dave and Andrea - Balancing M&M's on straws

Tied for the win

Sara and Sharon - Knocking off pop cans with rubber bands

Winner - Sharon

Kelsey and Craig - Using a balloon to blow cups off the table

Winner - Kelsey

Matt and Kristi - Trying to bounce ping-pong balls on peanut butter and jelly

Winner - Kristi

Jen and Jeff - Separation Anxiety - They had to separate M&M's  into cups in the order of the color of the rainbow - taking one piece at at time red-orange-yellow-blue-green

Winner - Jeff

At the end of the competition a few of the adults wanted to play the game below.

The object of the game was to knock down the pop bottles with the tennis balls in the bottom of the panty hose.

Some of us really got in to it.

Next we did a quick Minute to Win It for the kids:

Caty, Nathan, Austin and Kayla - Who can pull out the tissues the fastest?

Winner - Austin

All the kids left - Who can keep their balloon in the air the longest?

I wish I could say I knew who won this competition but Jeff started cleaning up and I started getting things ready for Connor's baptism in a few hours.

A few days later we presented the awards for the kids and adult competition:

The winner of the kids competition is......Maddie - She received a Cold Stone Creamers gift card.  Yum.

The winner of the adult competition is...........Jeff.  He received the Bastings Bowl trophy.

Above he is reading his acceptance speech.  What  a goober.

He was the last person to win that trophy several years ago, and I was more than happy to think it might be leaving our home....but I wasn't that lucky.

A special thanks to my husband Jeff, who organized the whole competition.  He did a great job!!! 

I know we all had so much  fun.  I can't wait until our Bastings Bowl next year.

Bastings Bowl

In the past, like several years ago past (I wrote posts about it here and here), when the Bastings boys get together they like to play a little football game called the Bastings bowl.  However, these boys (men) are getting older so tackling and pounding each other doesn't seem as enticing.  So this year Jeff changed it up, X'd the football game, included everyone - including the kids, and organized several games.

• Adults - Indian Leg wrestling, Basketball, and Minute-to-Win-it
• Kids - Just Dance, Obstacle Course, and Minute-to-Win-it    

We started the games Friday night:

Each of the kids competed twice in the Just Dance competition, adding up their individual scores.  We had a good time watching these guys dance their socks off.

Group 1: Jessica, Meagan, Kayla, and Nathan

Group 2: Austin (Craig), Sariah, Klayton, and Caty

Group3: Maddie, Tanner, Derek, and Connor

Watching the action.

The women decided to get in on the fun and dance to Ricky Martin's "Livin la Vida Loca"

The winners of the kids competition of Just Dance - Maddie.

Next up the adults played a Indian Leg Wrestling.  For anyone that doesn't know what that is, I'll explain:

 Lay side by side each other with your heads in opposite directions.

 

 On the count of 3 - throw your leg in the air and hook on to your partner.

 

 Use your leg muscles....

 to flip your opponent over...

 

 and over again....

 Then you do it again with another partner.

As you can see we laughed so hard that night.

 There were a few surprise wins this night, including my win against Craig.  Apparently before the fight began, Craig looked at Jeff and said he was going to mess with me.  Well he gave me an inch and I took it.  I think I was as surprised as he was with my win.

 He fought Sharon right after me....poor Sharon got his revenge from me and was flipped over in a split second.

 After several rounds of double elimination, Matt was the winner of our Indian Leg Wrestling competition.
2nd Place - Jeff
3rd Place - Vicki
4th Place -Dennis
5th Place - Andrea
I know you normally just recognize the winners thru 3rd place, but I was so happily shocked that I got 5th place that I had to include my place too =)

 I can safely say I haven't laughed as hard as I did this night in a long time.  Good fun family memories created.  More to come on our next competitions.