PINE WOOD DERBY

Jaxson had his first Pine Wood Derby tonight and he was ecstatic! For the past few weeks he and his dad have been working on his car. (We probably cheated him by buying a kit at Hobby Lobby, but he picked it out.) His car was very cool and realistic; it even had a driver, but unfortunately it didn't make the cut for the finals. At the end of the track, other cars just seemed to pass him at the last moment. It may have been a winning car - but it looked good going down the track.

I wasn't sure how Jaxson was going to respond to his car not winning, but he had a smile on his face the entire night and it didn't seem to bother him. The one thing that he discovered was he wanted to carve his own car next year.

The one thing we discovered was to put all the weight in the back of the car, as this helps the car speed down the track. Here's looking forward to next year's race!

VALENTINES DAY

I wanted to make Valentines Day special this year for my kids, so I started off the morning by making Heart shaped muffins (they didn't tun out so good, they looked more like kidney beans). The kids enjoyed them any way and off to school they went.

After they left for school, Reagan and I decorated their rooms with crepe paper, balloons, heart sticky notes all over the walls, valentines confetti, candy and banners. (They looked rally cute; hover it took much longer than I thought it would). Reagan was so excited to help me, I told her it was going to be a surprise for the kids when they got home from school. When I thought I was done and started putting things away, Reagan asked "When are we going to decorate my room?" I told her it wouldn't be a surprise and she quickly responded back saying "It will be a surprise mom!" I asked her what she wanted in her room, and she wanted it the same and Madi and Jaxson. So off we went to decorate her room together. She loves being bog like "her kids."

During the middle of decorating, I was preparing heart shaped rolls and red jello in heart molds. I also put the kids valentines cards and presents together, to give to them at dinner time.

Then off to Jaxson's classroom party I went. The hour and a half I was there zoomed by because because I was so busy helping the kids put together their valentines envelopes to hold all their goodies. (Don't even ask, how long it took me to put them together before the party. I spend a couple of late nights cutting, punching holes, cutting hearts and yarn to make it easy for them.) Sometimes I forget that it takes kids 3 times as long to get things done, versus myself. They envelopes did end up being adorable and the kids really enjoyed putting them together and decorating them.

When I arrived home, I started preparing chicken cordon bleu and mashed potatoes for dinner. I decorated the table and put candles out, with the kids valentines present on their plates (A book and a card). I had heart straws and made a raspberry sherbet drink with pink lemonade and sprite. I mashed the potatoes and colored them pink. Looking at them on our plates, it almost looked like dessert. I invited my parents over for dinner, so the seven of us enjoyed a candle light dinner in the dining room. All the food was delicious!

For family night, we did a scripture chase and looked for scriptures with the word heart in them. I gave the family the page number and the first person to find the scripture got a conversation heart. There are over 1200 scriptures with the word heart in them and only around 360 with the work love. Very interesting facts!

After our short lesson we played some valentines games including bingo, stacking conversation hearts, steal my heart (moving conversation hearts from one bowl to another by using chopsticks). We also played heart target with darts! We ended the evening with some peppermint cheesecake that my mom brought over, it was YUMMY!

The kids were so excited about the decorations in there rooms that, they wouldn't let me take down the decorations for a week.

It was such a fantastic day, I thoroughly enjoyed doing these fun activities for my kids! What will I do next year?

VALENTINE SURPRISE WITH HILARY WEEKS

I received the best gift on Saturday night from my husband. He planned a night out with a group of our friends and family. We started out the night with dinner reservations at Carvers and then the plan was to come to our house for a night of game playing. Little did I know what he really had planned or tricks he had up his sleeve.

When we arrived home, I led everyone down the stairs and there standing in my basement was Hilary Weeks. I was so shocked that I did a double take, no a triple take because I couldn't believe that Hilary was standing in front of me. (I thought this is not possible, I even muttered something out loud like - "No, This can't really be." Hilary responded back with "Yes, it really is." Inside I knew I recognized her, but I kept second guessing myself because things like this don't happen.

 

Dan had arranged for her to come and do a private concert in our home! He first contacted her manager back in December, after he looked up some information and saw that she had done some private concerts in the past. He knew how much I loved the music of Hilary Weeks (after all she serenades him in the shower a few times a week) and decided to investigate a little further. He had conversations with Hilary, in trying to set up a good time, and two weeks ago they finalized the date. While we were at dinner, she arrived with her husband Tim and they started setting up in my basement. My parents and children kept them company until we arrived.

 

What a fantastic night it was, one I will always remember for many reasons.

1. I will never forgot how much my husband truly loves me! For him to know my interests and to take it upon himself to put this evening together, meant so much to me. I makes me realize he would be willing to do anything for me and that he wants me to be happy. He is amazing!

2. Hilary music fills my soul. The words of her songs are so inspiring and have lifted me up in hard times and made me sing out loud on many other occasions.

3. Hilary was very down to earth and so interested in our family and my friends. She was easy going, funny (quick witted to say the least) and shared so many wonderful stories with us about her and also about how some of her songs were inspired.

4. I was surrounded by the people I love and care about, both friends and family. It was a wonderful night, and I got the opportunity to be with the ones I love.

Hilary has a new book coming out called "Bedtime and Nap time" the book includes a CD with all of her fun parody's about being a mom. I was fortunate to receive the every first copy of the book. She handed it to me during the concert and told me even her mother didn't have it yet.

During the middle of the concert Hilary stated she was going to sing "If I Only Had Today." She told us a story about how this song was written in an airplane and then told us a story of how she connected with a passenger on a different flight because she played this song for him. Well this happens to be my favorite Hilary Weeks song and I said it out loud. She then invited me to sing it with her, then she decided I was going to sing it for the group. She even pulled out the lyrics and sat down. I love to sing, and what an opportunity this was; however singing in front of the woman who wrote the song and with no practice or warning I was nervous to say the least. I pulled it together and sang, with my nerves (I'm absolutely sure I slaughtered the song) but I'm so glad I didn't back out, I would have regretted it for weeks.

After singing, Hilary went on with the concert and sang another favorite of mine. "Just Let Me Cry". She told us about a lady who had cancer and how she has sent them the minus tracks for her music so they could sing together. She received a letter later from the family about her death and about the memories they had singing her music together. The family knew they would get through this difficult time, however ended the letter by saying, "Just Let Us Cry."

Hilary was only supposed to stay for an hour - but we had such a great time together that we visited after the concert, took pictures and she signed every ones Cd's and books.

 

I can't say enough about this amazing night. Hilary made me feel extremely special - I was floored that she would take a vested interest in me, my family and friends. She was just as excited about performing as Dan was about her coming.

Now when I listen to her music, I get a personal reminder about the woman behind the music and I love it even more because of the person she is, the testimony she shares, and the love she has for others!

This night will go down in the history books for me as the best date ever!

JAXSON BASKETBALL

 

I love watching Jaxson play ball, he gets so involved and into the game. For him it is about winning; however he has a fabulous time along the way.

Jaxson is a wonderful ball player, he shoots well, can dribble and handle the ball well, he gets right in and guards and even had a few rebounds ans steals this year. A couple times during the season, Jaxson's shots brought our team back from being down and we ended up winning the game. I am really proud of him!

Another reason I love watching Jaxson play, is he continues to play with alot of his friends plus the same coaches for the past two years in both baseball and basketball. these coaches have a love for the game, they are competitive and love the boys. They are extremely positive, practice frequently with the boys and play hard with them as well. It makes it such a good experience for everyone involved when you have the right coaches.

At the end of the season, Jaxson's coaches pulled everyone into a circle like they do after every game to discuss the positive things about the day and the things they can improve upon. They handed out KING sized candy bars to each boy with a specific award in mind. Jaxson received the KING of the SPIN award. This was due to he handling the ball so well and being able to spin around while dribbling to get out of a tight defensive spot and move forward down the court. I was so sad to see the season end because I would miss these boys and the coaches tremendously.

Unfortunately Jaxson's coaches won't be around this year for baseball, so this was kind of an ending for us. I am so worried that the season won't be the same or a fun. The head coach Kody, will not be coaching this year because his son Kaden doesn't want to play. He is hoping that missing the season will make him want to play next year. The assistant coaches are moving over to Herriman ball, because they fall into the new boundaries for the high school and because Kody isn't coaching, they figured it was time to make the move.

Regardless of the baseball outcome this year, we are excited to hook up with this team again for another winning season of basketball. (The boys only lost one game this season!)

MADI BASKETBALL

 

Madi just finished up her 2nd season of basketball. I am amazed at the difference in her this year. Last year when she played no one on her team wanted to touch the ball (including Madi). As soon as the ball was thrown to them, they were looking for someone to pass the ball to.

This year Madi gained a lot more confidence in herself. Although she is still learning and growing I saw tremendous improvement in her skills. She dribbled the ball well, made some great passes and even took as few shots.

Basketball has become Madi's favorite sport to play. I am excited she has found something that she likes. Hopefully we will be able to find a spring league for her to play in, so she doesn't have to wait an entire year before playing again.

SPELLING IS HARD

Madi and I were having a conversation in the car about Kemerey Thompson. Kemerey lives in our neighborhood and just received her Young Women medallion. The previous Sunday in church she talked about her favorite value project and how she taught her younger brother and sister to read. Both of us thought this was really cool, so Madi had an idea to start spelling with Reagan.

While in the car Madi was helping Reagan to spell every one's name in our family. This was a little over her head, as she is still learning to spell her own name. So I suggested to Madi, that she work with her on spelling her own name instead. After about 15 to 20 minutes of spelling exercises with Reagan, Madi asked her what the next letter in her name was. Her response was "Y," Madi said "No not Y, what's the next letter?" So Reagan again repeated "Y." Madi again said "No, it's not Y, what's the next letter?" Then Reagan replied back by saying "No, why, why do I have to keep spelling my name?"

Madi and I both burst into laughter, it was one of the funniest things I have heard in a long time!

CHRISTMAS MEMORIES

Another busy Christmas season just wrapped up at our home! I just wanted to highlight a few of the things we enjoyed this Christmas season:

1. Hands Down - REAGAN
All Christmas season we heard "I am wishing for a Snow White dress!" This was the only thing she wanted. I few days before Christmas, she found out that you can actually ask Santa for more than one thing and her eyes lit up! Then we wanted Snow White dress up shoes too.

During Dan's family Christmas party, Reagan was not shy at all. She was the highlight of the evening. When Santa came in, she was jumping up and down. Santa had one of the cousins come and sit on his lap and ask her what song they should sang and Reagan started shouting out, "I know what we can sing, Rudolph, Rudolph!" She then went right up to his lap to sing the song. When the time came that she was supposed to sat on Santa's lap and receive her present, she was so cute. Her package was a small box and as soon as she sat on my lap, she said "Do you think it is a Snow White dress?" I told her the box was too small for a Snow White dress, so then she thought it was Snow White shoes. Unfortunately for her, it was neither of the two; but she enjoyed her gift any way.

On Christmas morning, Reagan opening up her Snow White dress very first, she just happened to pick out the right package, so off when the pajama's and on went the dress. She received few other dress ups for Christmas as well and each time she opened one, she had to change clothes. She loved getting her princess story book and immediately sat down to start looking it over. She wanted someone to read it to her right away. So a princess Christmas is was for her and I loved every minute of it. It is so fun to have a little girl again.

2. CHRISTMAS EVE
Every other year Dan and I switch off going to different families house for Christmas. It got a little too crazy trying to open presents, load up the kids to grandma's and them load them up again to go to the other grandma's house. I started not enjoying Christmas day because there was simply no time to enjoy it. hence the reason our tradition began. One year is Christmas Eve with one family and the other family gets Christmas Day. Then the next year we switch. This has made such a difference in not only my kids being able to enjoy Christmas, but also myself.

This year was my families turn for Christmas Day and Christmas Eve was supposed to be spent with Dan's family; however Dan's mom forgot about Christmas Eve and no one else in the family could get together that night. So we ended up spending the 23rd with Dan's family instead. This gave us the night off for Christmas Eve. WE thought about going to my dad's family Christmas party; however we decided to bail and just spend the evening with our kids and I am so glad we did!

We ventured up to Park City and went sledding at Gorgoza Park. Being Christmas Eve, the sledding hill was not crowded at all and the weather wasn't bad either. At night they light up the hill with lights; plus they tow you up the mountain, so it is effortless! (My kind of sledding) The hill was moving pretty fast, so they would only allow 3 tubers to connect their tubes at a time. We spent the time training down the mountain with a couple of kids or one of the kids. All we had was smile and laugh, we all had a spectacular time. Reagan loved it too!

After sledding we went out to dinner at the Cheesecake factory (a family favorite) we got right in because it was late and it was Christmas Eve.

After all of our gallivanting around we headed home (it was already 9:30 PM) and we still had to give the kids their presents. It is tradition in our home to give the kids new pajama's to wear on Christmas Eve; plus I give the kids an ornament every year for the Christmas tree. One that represents something in their life for that year. It is one of my favor tie things to shop for each season.

Reagan - Belle ornament (She was Belle for Halloween and has loved dressing up this year. She even makes everyone call her the princess name when she is in the dress up. She gets down right mad if you call her Reagan.)

Jaxson - Baptism ornament (He was baptizes this year and I couldn't think of anything more significant that becoming a member of the Church.

Madi - YW ornament (She turned 12 this year and entered into the Young Women's program at church. To me this is a huge symbol of her growing up and becoming a young lady. I made her ornament by using a colored jewel representing each of the young women value colors. At the bottom of the ornament I attached a YW.)

This was my favorite Christmas Eve ever! We all believe this needs to become a new tradition in our house. We are just going to have to convince my family next year to go sledding with us on Christmas Eve.

3. WHITE ELEPHANT GIFT EXCHANGE
Another family tradition is to exchange white elephant gifts with my parents and siblings, in lieu of exchanging gifts. We start looking for items months before Christmas arrives, just to pick out the perfect gift. This year I had the idea to give the gift of tongues! I had purchased a blow up tongue in Florida at Harry Potter world in Universal islands of adventure, so to add to this, I ordered a cows tongue from the butcher. It was disgusting! I found some articles in a different language and included it in the package. Melissa was the lucky one to open it (She always picks my gifts and knows it's going to be bad, but continues to pick them anyway) Everyone get a huge laugh out of the surprise. Nobody wanted to take home the tongue (I can't imagine why). At the end of the night, my poor grandmother ended up with the tongue.

4. MADI THINKING MY BEST GIFT WAS A TENNIS BALL ON A STRING
A few days after Christmas, Madi was spending some time over at a friends house. Her mother asked her all about Christmas and then asked what I had received. Madi proceeded to tell her that I got the coolest gift ever. (She was completely serious) She told her that I received a ball that looked like a tennis ball, that I hang from the ceiling in the garage to know where to park the car. My friend then asked her again if that was the best gift I had received. She responded back with "Yes!" After this conversation, my friend had to call me to find out if I had received anything else for Christmas (she was a little worried).

5. DINNER FOR THE WOMEN'S SHELTER
My friends decided this year that instead of giving each other gifts that we would do something for someone else in need. JoLynn put together a night where we could all make and serve dinner at a women's shelter / drug rehab facility. Everyone took a portion of the meal to make; in addition we all purchased some items to donate to the shelter. When we arrived at the shelter we set up in the kitchen and served dinner to all of the ladies living there. The women were all so appreciative of our service and it was such a small task to complete. I know we all felt better about ourselves that night and wished we could of done more to help them. I know this will be a new tradition amongst our friends during the holiday season. One I am looking forward to being a part of again.

GINGERBREAD HOUSES

I decided it would be fun to do gingerbread houses this year and let the kids each decorate their own. I have never made gingerbread, so our house were going to be made of graham crackers! I thought it would be brilliant to hot glue the houses together first and then let the kids go to town with the candy and frosting. (It seems that the hardest part of doing gingerbread houses is getting your structure to stand up, so I knew this technique was going to be helpful)

I invited my brother Jared and sister in law Erin over with their daughter Lydia, so she could participate in the fun too. Little did I know Jared had his own creative juices flowing and decided to take part in the building. The kids had a fantastic time adding their own creativity to their houses. Reagan and I worked together, while Madi, Lydia and Jaxson all had their own houses. Reagan was more interested in eating the candy rather than putting it on the house, but her little cottage turned out cute anyway. (It just didn't last long, because she kept picking at the candy)

When the kids had lost interest in decorating and decided they were done, Jared was still constructing his house / fort. It was hilarious! He was cutting and intricately designing every last detail.

Finally after I got everything cleaned up, we invited my parents over to judge the gingerbread houses. My mom being the kind person that she is, decided to give everyone an award. We didn't like that response, so we asked my dad what he thought. I believe he liked Reagan's house the best, but I can't remember (it could have been Madi's too).

Jared was very proud of his design, even though it didn't win, so we decided to make it the center piece of our Christmas dinner table. It was pretty funny!

The kids kept their houses in their rooms for about a week, until they started getting soft and I threw them out. It was a messy project, but worth it!

UGLY SWEATER PARTY

We had such a great time last year having an ugly sweater party with our family for Thanksgiving, that we decided for Christmas to throw another party with our friends.

Everyone got into the spirit of the ugly sweater, It is so fun to see what people come up with and have no problem wearing in public. My favorite was that Craig Bonham wore his cream sweater and green Dickie to church the following morning and was complimented on his attire.

Dan wanted to deep fry a turkey for the party, so for an early Christmas present, he received one from his parents. We had a delicious meal that everyone helped participate with; we had everything from rolls, fruit salad, salad, mashed potatoes and gray and even stuffing. For dessert I made a yummy chocolate bundt cake!

After visiting at dinner we headed downstairs for a white elephant exchange. I laughed pretty hard at some of the gifts that were passed around. WE had everything from the shake weight, to a Robert Pattinson calendar, to a half eaten box of chocolates. There were even romantic coupons from Dan and a night of guilty pleasures (romance novel, records, a picture of Rusty), etc.

We also played our favorite game the "Dollar Game!" Lora went home with the jackpot! My favorite part of the evening was just hanging out with everyone, watching YouTube videos and laughing hysterically. I has introduces to the Flight of the Conchords and "Business Socks," something I will never forget.

It is good times when you have fantastic friends you can share fun memories with enjoy one another's company. This turned out to be one of those nights. (I think next year we will have an old geezers party!)

TEMPLE SQUARE AT CHRISTMAS

For our extended family night this month we loaded up everyone and headed downtown to see the lights at Temple Square. There were several things to be excited about this year with our annual excursion:

1. The weather was beautiful! Especially when comparing it to last year and how bitter the cold was. You could actually stand to walk around and enjoy the lights, family and the Christmas spirit.

2. They opened up the gates to the temple and we were able to have our kids walk right up to the temple. We took family pictures with all of us standing in front of the gold doors. My kids have never been so close to the Salt Lake Temple except during a wedding. This was definitely a special occasion for everyone.

3. We visited grandma English after looking at the lights and took her some Christmas goodies and presents. We all had hot chocolate and cookies for dessert at her home.

4. After wrapping things up with Grandma, we all came back to our house in preparation of delivering the 12 days of Christmas to my parents. We all wanted to deliver the presents since they were from all the kids and we figured this would be the best opportunity we would have getting all of us together during the busy and crazy schedules leading up to Christmas.

My parents stayed at Grandmas a little longer than us kids, so we waited in our cars with the lights off for them to arrive home. (It was 11:00 PM on a school night) Then we quickly got out of our cars with the presents - Reagan was quicker than the rest of us, so we were all chasing her and trying to get up to the porch before mom and dad answered it. We all sang "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" on their porch. We were obviously invited in and we handed over the box of gifts with tags and instructions for each day. Mom cried (it was expected). We were hoping to bring a little Christmas spirit into their home and I think it worked. Everyone left feeling content and happy. It was a great way to start off the holidays.