Lack of Blogging

I know, I have been slacking when it comes to blogging. Here's why.....

My schedule is crazy! I took this picture because if you can see April 15th is circled in red because it was going to be a miracle. I looked at the calendar and saw that blaring white empty spot of a day and just couldn't believe it. Speech had been moved to a different day, piano lessons had been moved to a different day, no baseball practices or games and that meant NOTHING was going on. As you can see I got so excited I circled this anomaly of a day in red. However, it was not meant to be. Since I've taken this picture I found out that Pack meeting is on that day and Jason has to work late so I have to go with all the munchkins alone. Looking on the bright side, at least I'll have time to make dinner (another rare occurrence around here.)

Swim team starts in 5 days which makes the schedule go supersonic. So, I'm not really sure when I'll be back.

Just to put a smile on your face

The other day Preston came up to me and said, "I'm going to be bored today at school." Then I told him that he needed to listen to his teachers and not get in any time outs. (The previous school day had been a rough one for him) He replied with a nonchalant, "I know, that means I'm going to be bored." :)

On a different day Andrew came home from school and was telling me about what they had talked about. They had been learning about fractions. He was really excited and he said, "The bottom number of a fraction is called the de-Terminator!" :)

Pinewood Derby 2010

It's that time of year again. Andrew and Jason worked for about three weeks to make their car. Andrew looked at cars online and decided on a design. He cut and sanded it himself. He also came up with the color scheme on his own too.

Here is the final product. He won for the "Most Futuristic" looking car.

Getting ready to race.

Racing agains his friend Jordan's car (which was named The Silver Bullet) and his friend Bryce's BYU car. Bryce ended up taking 2nd overall and Jordan placed 6th.

Hanging out with friends Walker and Corbin in between races.

Yeah, first place again!

This is fun!

Adam hanging out with Daddy. This is the only foolproof way to keep Adam out of trouble.

Congratulations Andrew, you won first place overall!

All the racers. (We didn't notice right away that Adam was sitting in the picture.)

Great job!

You guys make a great team.

This is a poster that he painted the week before at a den meeting. It was hung up as a decoration at the race.

Natasha's Big Plans

Natasha came home today with a list of what she's going to do when she "moves out." She had these written on a piece of paper with boxes next to them to check off when done.

This is exactly how she had it:

-Ohio

-New York

-texis (Texas)

-big trees

-mountins

-Moro Bay (Morro Bay)

-meet Bindi

-go to the jungle and live there for ever!!

Now, her explanation of the list.

All of the locations listed are on her way to meet Bindi. She will start in Ohio to save up to get to New York and then after New York she will go to Texas. I was curious how she came up with Texas. She told me her friend Unique from school was born in Texas and they had woodpeckers there. She skipped to the part where she would meet Bindi and she said she would tell her she was her biggest fan. Then she would move to the jungle to live there forever. She did tell me that part might not work out but she hoped so.

After she gave her explanation Andrew had to of course tell her that all that was way too expensive and impossible to do. Geesh, big brothers can be so bossy!

If I had three wishes....

We were in the car last week and out of the blue Andrew said,

"If I had three wishes I would wish for,

1. That Hogwarts was real and that I could go there.

2. That I had the "Force" and could be a Jedi with a light saber.

3. Um... I can't think of anything else."

I thought it was very interesting that he was very emphatic about his first two wishes and then could think of absolutely nothing else. It was cute.

Natasha was with us so I asked her if she could wish for something what would it be and she answered, "I wish that I could be a horse." No surprises there. :)

Christmas 2009

Thanksgiving was a first because we had family, Christmas was also a first because we had no family. This was our first Christmas since we've been married that we were not with any family during Christmas. We did miss everyone but it was also nice to be a little more laid back.

Andrew got a custom car design kit. It came with a light table so you can design your own car and then trace the final version on a piece of paper.

Preston with his Leapster. He got a Wall E game with it and he likes playing it.

Ooh, I can hardly wait to see what Santa brought.....

.....he brought matching rifles! Preston was VERY excited. His cousin Ty had gotten one this summer and ever since Preston has been thinking about that gun.

Luckily Sophie cooperated with us opening presents.

Nana and Papa gave Natasha this jungle animal tree house. She really likes playing with it.

Natasha has been asking for the horse named Butterscotch for a few years now. It was crazy expensive so it has never really been an option. However, this year I found one at a consignment store for an awesome price. Since we couldn't really wrap it we brought it out at the end. Natasha was soooooooooooooooo excited! She had non-stop talked about Butterscotch for the last two months and she thought all was lost once we had finished opening the presents. I was video taping so we didn't get any still pictures but she couldn't believe that she had gotten it. (The snow owl was a gift from Santa.)

Nana and Papa gave Preston a dress up army man outfit and he loved it. Andrew was a little jealous of it too.

Adam playing with his new cars that he got . His corvette is the yellow one and Preston's is the blue one. Adam basically took them both over though. I made sure to give Adam the yellow one because Uncle Bryan's corvette is yellow and Adam still talks about it.
Andrew got two Lego Space Police kits for Christmas and he really enjoyed putting them together. This one he got from his cousins Parker, Ty, & Zoe.

This one he got from us. It has a good guy ship and a bad guy ship.

We were so blessed this year and we all had a great Christmas!

The gang

Here is the gang on the Sunday before Christmas.

This is the picture that we used for our Christmas card.

Early Christmas with the cousins

A week before Christmas we celebrated early with Nathan and Renay's family. Our kids just love to hang out with their cousins Kaeli, Alyssa, and Ian. We exchanged gifts and the kids all loved what they got.

Natasha (Crayola Glow Dome), Andrew (Duck Hunter - the duck flies in the air until you shoot it three times with the gun), Kaeli (DS game), Alyssa ( Furreal puppy), Preston (Remote control truck), Adam (Remote control truck).

Thanksgiving

For the first time in MANY years we actually got to celebrate Thanksgiving with family. Nana and Papa got to come out for a week and the kids loved every minute of it. The weather was great and the food was great. We loved being able to spend time with Nana and Papa.

Of course, life is so chaotic around here these are about the only pictures we got. Unfortunately the older kids were at school and Preston was sick!

Nana with her buddy Adam. He LOVES when Nana comes to visit. Even two months later he still asks me "Where did Nana go?" in his cute little whiney voice.

Adam also can't enough of Papa. He always wants him to do "magic" (which means he wants Papa to make candy "magically" appear.) I really enjoyed Papa being here and the fact that he gets up early. The two younger boys would always go down and hang out with Papa in the morning and watch Tom and Jerry. It was so relaxing to me to not hear screaming all morning and to not have to worry about my house getting destroyed. :)

We had a great Thanksgiving!

Scouting

Andrew is still really enjoying cub scouts. This past October he got to go shoot BB guns and do archery. Despite the heat and long waits he had a great time. He was excited that he improved on his scores from last year.

Natasha is also excited about being a Brownie Girl Scout. In December we went to a big event called Winterfest and she had a blast!

She learned how to finger knit (which came in handy for making Christmas gifts.)

You can never pass up face painting!!!!

Here she is making a wand out of a pencil. She came home with many fun things that day. (Her friend Emma is right next to her.)