May 2011 Catch up

So, I thought I was caught up with the 2nd quarter blog update, however I realized that I had missed many fun family moments including a few birthdays! So I am back to monthly updates. I have been a bargain hunter/thrifty person most of my life, out of necessity. One way we save money is on hair cuts. Since all the boys have inherited their parents wonderful hair challenges, they have no choice but to wear their hair short. So I lined them all up and give them my special hair cut, even Jeff. Some of them want to grow their hair out, but after a few weeks they usually come back and say "Ok, can I get a hair cut?" Tracen is now part of the the big production and holds very still! Hey it may not be the most fashion forward look, but it saves us a ton of money!




Next up we had Tommy's birthday! He turned 7! This year he had a friend birthday party where we went to see the movie Rio. I think he had a great time with his group of friends!


The rest of the month was full of end of school year science projects, musical programs and assemblies that kept us very busy. Over all the kids had some really great teachers! We will surely miss them as our district had some boundary changes and we will be going to a brand new school! We are excited about the school, but sad about missing all of the great teachers at our old school.

2nd Quarter Updates

Every Spring Jeff's work has a state wide conference were the employees gather for classes and a little friendly competition down in Utah's "Dixie" (St. George). He is not always able to go, but this time he had the golden ticket. We were able to tag along for a little family vacation with little or no cost.



This year spring had been a little on the chilly side, so we watched the weather and picked the warmest day for our hotel swim. Even though it felt a little cool it was wonderful not to have all the snow.






Tracen was a little apprehensive to try out the pool but seam to enjoy the day. It was his very first time in a real swimming pool.



We were then off to Pirates Pizza were the kids had fun with the games, atmosphere and filling their tummies.



Jeff had classes and competitions during the day, so we were able to check out many of the public parks. It was a great way to spend the day, especially since it was free. I am totally impressed with all of St.George's parks! Many are amazing with splash pads. Even though it was too cold to take advantage of the water features, we had a really fun time.













When the rains started to come towards the end of our trip, we found refuge at the local movie theater to see "Hop". This was to be Tracen's movie debut, but he didn't even make it past the previews. Thank goodness that Tanner is older and has a phone so he could stay with the other kids while I wandered the halls with Tracen. I knew that Tracen couldn't last another hour in the halls, so he and I got a refund, and took a little drive so that he could take a nap. Then we picked up the kids and had a "Red box" movie afternoon at the hotel.






The rest of the month and spring were filled with Easter, family parties, and of course soccer. The weather still felt like winter as we bundled up for every activity!














Tanner made the high school soccer team and was even able to play up on the varsity team. They had a pretty good season but missed the play offs.









Tommy and Tucker also returned to play soccer as Tate took a break from his competitive team this year. They all did a great job on their teams. We just wish it was warmer.

1st Quarter Catch Up

I am starting to try and tie up loose ends that have been on my "To Do List" as the year is winding down. Our family blog is a major loose end! It has been beyond being on life support stage for months. I thought about just letting the blog die, but on another to do list, I have the goal in making a blog book for family memories one of these years. It would total help with the guilt of being 12 years behind with the scrapbooks. So he is my first attempt at bringing our blog back to life!




Tracen is just a little fire ball who keeps us going! Here he is with Tanner at a basketball game right before tip off.





Tate's Rec basketball team did really well this year. His team took first place in his age group. It was a family affair as Jeff was head coach and Tanner was his assistant. Congrats Tate!!






In the beginning of 2011, I really tried to keep the ball rolling from 2010 goal of my "getting healthy" plan. My journey has been up and down, but one of my highlights was being able to meet Justin from the Biggest Looser program. He was very inspirational speaker at our local health club and was fun to meet.






The spring weather was starting to warm up a little, so Jeff and Tracen headed out to the back fields to start the planting. Tracen loves to be outside with Jeff and always wants to be right in the action. Jeff can't wait until he is big enough to take a turn mowing but for now loves him to be his little buddy.

Juggling January

I had great intentions for our family blog at the start of this new year. I envisioned monthly family updates with other occasional weekly posts of mother hood in the fast lane and all the challenges it in tales. Instead, I am regrouping and thinking that quarterly family updates is maybe my blog's new reality. So, before the first quarter of 2011 is up, I will try and catch up on what we have been up to.



The Pinewood derby came early this year, so father and son got right on it. Plans were made of how to make the fastest car, but they were still running around days before trying to put the final product together. They had great success as Tucker, I think, came in 3rd over all with the best time over several heats. He also won the most sporty, for his BYU themed car.



We thought January would be a time to slow down and just chill and regroup, like Tracen & Jeff here, but life just kept on going. January was filled with kids basketball games, church callings, and just trying to stay on top of dinner and laundry. I know we are all in the same boat in our own rat race. Maybe on different decks with what we have going on in life. Some families might be on the sun deck right now, while I feel like I am in the kitchen just trying to feed the whole crew! I know, I know enjoy the moment!



Tucker especially had a little more attitude this month! He was running around the house in his under ware. After several pleas and demands that he really did need to get some pants on. He said fine, and put the pants on his head. See, Mom, now I have pants on! I was just so shocked at his creative attitude of back talk, that I had to take a picture.



More pictures of Tucker's final product for the pinewood derby.





Tucker is very creative, so he decided to take that extra energy to make some pre-valentines decorations for his room. I was shocked that he could make this up all on his own with my old scrapbook paper. Yes, I will some day get to that digital scrapbook. If you can't tell it says "Be My Valentine"!



Tracen has been growing up so fast! He is just a little mover and shaker who is into EVERYTHING! Many more pictures to come with his adventures, but here are a few of him playing peek a boo!

Dazzling December

This busy month kept us moving and grooving as we attended some various activities.


First up was "Parents week" at the kids gymnastic school where they showed us their progress in all of their tumbling and climbing skills!




This year Tucker made it clear to the top of the gym, on the climbing rope! He was pretty pumped to show us how much he has improved.




Tracen tried to get in on all the action by trying out his own skills on the tumbling equipment.





Next up, was our homemade ginger bread house out of graham crackers. Everyday Tucker was asking when we were going to make ginger bread houses. Since I had not picked up our traditional kit at the store yet and I was tired of the nagging, I decided a nice after school project would be to break out the graham crackers. The boys had a good time and also decorated the kit I bought in later weeks. However, I forgot to snap of picture of the final projects.



Tate earned his "Arrow of Light" award from cub scouts, where he got to graduate from cub scouts and take the traditional walk across the bridge symbolic of him graduating into 11 year scouts. He also earned his "20 patch" which is an award stating that he passed off every section in the Weblow book. It was a lot of work, but I am glad that he was able to get everything done!





This year Tate & Tucker participated in the PTA reflections contest and did really well. Tucker won first place in the visual art category, while Tate won 2nd place in the photography area. They won both ribbons and cash for their 1st and 2nd place finishes.






Our brother in law, Micah, has been serving over in Afghanistan since July. We did not expect to see him until his R & R break in February. However, his brother died in December and so he was given a two week bereavement to come home. Even thought it was very sad about his brothers death, we were glad to experience at least a little bit of the holiday season with him. He had to go back on the 23rd, so we had a pre-Christmas dinner and got to watch the the BYU bowl game.



Sherlene and Micah's little boy Kaleb is about 9 months younger than Tracen, so they have a fun time when we all get together.



Tommy was especially excited to have his "buddy" Micah home, and tried to spend every minute with him.








Tucker was excited to finally loose one of his teeth that had been loose for ever.



I had many good intentions for the Christmas season. I wanted to have fun activities every night counting down to Christmas day. In reality we only did a few. One was this Christmas themed dinner where the pasta was shaped in a Christmas theme. I made homemade green & white breadsticks in the shape of candy canes, and we had some fun Christmas treats for dessert. So next year I will start earlier in the month and see if we can make some more Christmas memories.





Christmas morning was fun having the kids be so excited. The night before, Santa got caught red handed about 1:30 am, but the kids went right back to bed as the stocking had yet to be filled and we explained that Santa had left in a hurry over to the neighbors as they were not suppose to be out of bed yet. So we looked out the window and sure enough the neighbors front room lights were on. It was convincing enough for them to hop back into bed and give Santa a chance to finish the job.



The rule this year was to let Tracen wake up on his own. Then the kids could finally come and wake us up. So we were lucky enough to get to sleep in until 8:00 am that morning.



We have a house that is divided! Yes we have a BYU fan and a UTE fan living in the same house. They both got school T-shirts and footballs. They were each thrilled but thought it would be fun to have a rival picture.



Here is a few shots of Christmas with Jeff's family, and then I can't believe I forgot to take a single picture of our Gus gathering. My sis Annalee & hubby Steve go all out and have the most beautiful decorations. We had a great time with all!



You would think with the holiday break there would be no school activities, practices or games. That is not the case with High school sports. The freshman team played Box Elder and Tanner had a pretty good game, where their team won. I really need to get a camera with an optical zoom, as my digital zoom just doesn't cut it for sporting events.



Yes that is Tanner at the free throw line.



So, that is a wrap folks. Here's to 2010! It was a great year and we hope we are all healthy and happy in the years to come. Happy New Year!