Let's go fly a kite!

Today our ward held the 2nd annual (in five years) kite flying day! We all met at the park to fly our kites and eat a little lunch! It was a fun afternoon...even if there wasn't very much wind! The kids had a fun time flying their kites and playing on the playground.

We left early so Jeremy could come home and work on the fence. Since it IS his birthday I figured I should let him do what he wants...and he wants the fence up! It's coming along great! We have one whole side almost done!

Here is a pic of Jeremy's work station:

I'm so glad we have that bathtub he can use as a saw horse!

We are now trying to plan out where we will put our garden! Wynnie and I watched a video on square foot gardening and while they were out "helping" Jeremy her and Hannah made this box for our garden. I'm pretty impressed at how well she listened and remembered!

Super Bowl Sunday!!!!

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL!!!!

I haven't really been THAT into football lately (actually it's probably been more like the last 9 years or so...I guess that's what happens when you marry someone who's not a real sports fan.) BUT, Super Bowl Sunday is still a chance to celebrate: watch a little football (it never hurt anyone to watch a little football...even Jeremy can sit through one game a year with me), eat a little (or A LOT) food, spend time with family, laugh at all the funny commercials (although, the commercials are getting less and less funny!)

We went over to Holly and Brett's to watch the game and even though I'm not a fan of either team playing (the Steelers and the Cardinals) it was a good game (I would have liked it better if the Steelers would have lost but my team didn't make it so whatever!) The kids had a fun time playing! Wynnie and Evrett had their own Super Bowl in Holly's hallway...it was cute!

After the game we celebrated all the Jan/Feb birthdays (Holly, Wynnie, Esther, and me!) and had cake and ice cream! It was a good day spent with the Fam!

We spent a week in Texas...it was great! Wonderful company, awesome weather...we didn't even need our jackets most of the time! We kept ourselves busy and had a ton of fun!

Here are some of the highlights:

Jan 23rd:

Here we are at the airport...getting ready to leave for our big Texas adventure! Taking 4 kids with us to fly stand-by wasn't as bad as we had anticipated. Everyone was very nice and accommodating. At first they had us seated all over the plane...one seat here, one seat there, another one WAY over there! Jeremy went up and explained our situation (2 crazy parents trying to travel with 4 children under the age of 6!) and they gave us new seat assignments (closer together) and then once we were on the plane the other passengers were more than willing to trade seats so we could sit together (Jeremy sat with Hannah and I sat across the isle and down one row with the other three) I think they saw us coming and thought "I don't want to be stuck on a plane for 2 1/2 hours next to all those kids!" The kids did wonderful on the plane! We had packed snacks, coloring books, barbies, paper, pencils...we were prepared! I think they would have been fine without any of that...they were excited to be on a plane and more excited to be going to Texas!

Jan 24th:

We headed over to Jared and Mitzi's to see their new house! It was still under construction last time we were here! It's really cute...they've done a great job decorating! Then we let the girls play at the park (thanks Ali for all the way cute pictures! You can tell she misses the girls...I think she took over 400 pics of them playing at the park!)

The girls got to do a coffee filter art project with grandma!

Just hanging out having fun at grandmas house!


The girls found Nancy box of costumes so they had a fun time dressing all of us up!



Jan 26th:

Jared made these canoes (he actually built them in his garage...pretty amazing!) So we took them down to the river for some fun! He even made a little one just the girls (and Mitzi's) size!

While we were down at the river we made some S'Mores...YUM!

Jared even made a sail for the boats so you could take them sailing!

Jan 27th:



We took the girls to the butterfly museum in Houston (the boys went to the car show!) The girls had a great time looking at all the displays and reading about all the bugs but when we went into the atrium they were scared to death! Mind you the atrium is filled with BUTTERFLIES...oh and moths, but mostly little butterflies...B-U-T-T-E-R-F-L-I-E-S! Not man eating butterflies just normal pretty butterflies that tickle when they land on you like this:

My girls couldn't handle it...they screamed like...well, like little girls and wanted to leave soon after we entered! I made them hang out for a while hoping they would get used to the butterflies but as soon as they saw a butterfly anywhere close to them they would scream and hide behind someone! I tried explaining that they were just HARMLESS butterflies but that didn't work either! Then we saw this:

It's an Australian walking stick. And it's a little (A LOT) creepy! My girls...didn't scream! They didn't want to get close to it but it didn't get nearly the reaction that the scary butterflies got!

When we left the atrium they had a play area for the girls...they loved it! They got to learn about bugs without having to be around any moving ones! They had a wall that had butterflies "flying" on it (it was a movie screen with butterflies projected onto it) and the girls loved dancing around with the "fake" butterflies...just don't ask them to be around any live ones!

After the fun day in Houston (at the butterfly museum and car show) we went to the park to play baseball with Maggie! It was fun to be outside and run around! The girls had a lot of fun and Maggie just has way too much energy!



Jan. 28th:

Grandma helped the girls make party hats out of paper plates! There are plenty of art crafts when Grandma is around!

After that Hannah and Wynnie got to help Grandma Nancy make Esther a birthday cake!

Then they got to attend Nancy's art lesson. They had a great time. They got to learn about doodling and then decorate their own pair of flip flops!




After dinner we had a birthday party for Essie! I can't believe she is one! We had a great time. She loved her cake and enjoyed opening her presents!

Jan 29th:



Mitzi took us down to a nature trail. It was nice to walk around and look at all the cool "swamp" nature.



The night before we left Hannah's tooth was REALLY loose and I was afraid it might fall out in her sleep so I wiggled it around and it fell out! She has joined the ranks of all her friends who have lost teeth! She was really excited! She has been waiting for this day for a long time!

Jan 30th:

Jared got to fly our plane home...how cool is that! Mitzi came on the flight too (she was coming to Utah to visit her family.) It was great to have her help! Hannah and Wynnie insisted on sitting by her which meant Jeremy actually got to sit by me...so nice to have his help with the two little ones! Once we got to SLC Jared took the girls up to the cockpit! It was neat to see...it looked really complicated...lots of buttons, and dials, and levers...I'm glad Jared knows what he's doing!

We will miss the company and the weather but it's always nice to be home! (Even if it is a mess...because we started a crazy home improvement project then went on vacation!)

I have some fun videos of our trip too but this post is already WAY long so I will try and post the videos later!

Looking for snow!

Hannah didn't have school today so we headed out for the hills! We wanted to get at least one more day of sledding in before we head to Texas (warm weather here we come!) It's been kind of warm the last few days (for winter in Utah anyway) and our normal parks don't have much snow on the hills anymore so we went up the canyon looking for snow. We were told there was great sledding up Trappers loop so we loaded up and headed off! When we got to Pineview we saw some parachutes over the water/ice so we stopped to see what was going on. When we got out of the car we saw two people para-skiing across the ice. We watched them for a while...it was really cool! Hannah and Wynnie told me that they wanted to try...I told them we would have to wait and see!

We headed back up the loop and found lots of snow, but no place where people were sledding so we headed back to the park in North Ogden that we went to last week. The hills we were on last week were now grass but the big hills on the east still had snow so we got to get our sledding in (finally!) We had fun...there was only one wipeout!

Here's a video of the para-skiers...really cool...we may just have to try this out someday!

Here's a picture of the wipeout...

SNOW fun!!!

Earlier today Mechelle called and wanted to know if the kids and I wanted to come play in the snow. We were knee deep in paint flecks and wall paper scraps (from scraping the walls in the girls room) so I told her probably not today. Around lunch time I was more than sick of scraping the walls so I called Mechelle and told her maybe we could go sledding after the kids took naps. When the kids woke up we headed off to sled--it was almost 4:30 so we had about an hour before sunset--which was more than enough time for our little ones! Sophie and Preston got cold and started crying so we spent some time in the car while the others finished sledding. Sophie LOVED sledding I think I just need to get her better gloves. Her hands were cold but it broke her heart to stop sledding and get in the car. She kept telling me "Go down, GO DOWN!" Hannah and Wynnie had a blast! They were sliding down the hill on their bottoms then they turned over onto their bellys and slid down like penguins--laughing all the way! Wynnie even grabbed one of the sleds and went down by herself! I couldn't believe it! It scared me at first. She was going so fast but Wynnie wasn't scared at all...you could hear her laughing the entire way down! Hannah even went down by herself.

I have to tell you a little about the sleds we have. A couple of years ago my dad gave them to us and now I know why--you start out going down the hill fine but no matter what you do the sled will turn itself around so you end up speeding down the hill backward! The girls loved it--it makes for a fun ride (personally I prefer seeing where I am going!)

Of course the tears came when it was time to go! I think the girls would have stayed there all night if we would have let them! We will definitely go again!

Mom was nice enough to make hot chocolate for us so we stopped by her house when we were done. Even with all the wall paper scrapping it turned out to be a great day!

HAPPY 2009!!!

I can hardly believe 2008 is over! For the most part this has been a good year for us: we got to meet the newest member of our family (We love you Essie Sage!), Jeremy ran for office (we met a ton of really neat people and learned a lot about the election process), the girls have kept us busy (dance lessons, gymnastics,...boundless energy), we got a new car (WE GOT A NEW CAR!!!) there are many other good things about this last year (that's not to say we haven't had our challenges--because we have but the good out ways the bad (it always does) we are truly blessed!) I'm excited to see what 2009 has in store for our little family!

We had a great time bringing in the new year last night! My parents and Ryan and Amanda came over and we played games and hung out (Mechelle and Aaron joined us VIA phone--they had sick boys!) It was a good time!

At midnight KST (Kid Standard Time)--OK, it was actually 10:00 pm but we thought that was late enough for our little ones to be up--we celebrated the new year!

We hope you all enjoy this New Year!!!