I'm so behind!

Things have been super busy around here despite the holidays being long gone!

Both of the boys signed up for tumbling at the beginning of January.  This means that we now spend 3 days a week (four hours a week) at LaShars!  Boy are they getting their money's worth from us!  The boys have loved every second of it and Caleb asks nearly every day if it's tumbling day.  Guess I should have signed them up sooner!  Yes, their dad knows they're doing it.  I think it was when I said that the dance they were learning was Footloose that he finally decided it was ok!

Nash had his first pinewood derby ever!  He had a great time making his car & even though he didn't come in one of the top three places, he had a great time racing.  He even has two grandmas, a grandpa, mom & a brother there to cheer him on!

Samantha performed at the USU women's basketball half time.  As always, she did great!  She told us afterwards that their music skipped so they were off.  I let her know that we couldn't even tell.  She was pretty happy to have two grandmas, a grandpa, all three siblings, a dad & two cousins show up to watch her dance!

Sam also danced at our Relay for Life kickoff event on February 6th.  We had our third annual Dancing with the Relay Stars.  Her dance studio was one of the studios that participated.  I think she had a great time.  I also think she was secretly glad that her group was second to last to perform so that she could watch most of the show!

Nash has been playing basketball.  It's all kinds of fun for more to trek out to Hyde Park twice a week for practice and a game!  His team hasn't won too many games, but he seems to be enjoying it.

His last game is this Saturday (February 15th).  Before we know it soccer season will be here and it will be Nash on the sidelines cheering Caleb on.

The last time Travis came home we managed to get two kids with pink eye, Travis with influenza, Brooke with influenza, & Sam & Nash either had a 24 hr bout of influenza or something of a varying sort.  Not fun.  Now that Travis is gone, apparently it's my turn.  I'm crossing my fingers I don't get it full on - I don't have time for that.  Here's for hoping!

The last time Travis was home we also celebrated this girl's birthday!

Sister requested all things mustache or zebra

I cannot believe she is 11 (well, almost!).  Where has that time gone?  She is growing up to be such a beautiful young lady.  She is very kind and thoughtful.  She is getting to be a fairly decent babysitter for me now too.  I'm still in denial that she's going to be in middle school next year!

Preschool is moving right along and we're getting ready for our Valentine's Day party at the end of this week.  Samantha is still in my SEM group at Canyon and they've just started debate.  I'm not sure how great of an idea it was for me to teach my own daughter to debate!  Here's to hoping I don't regret it later!

A little bit of excitement...

Travis has been bugging me since this past summer to set up an appointment with the bishop for him.  I somehow keep managing to forget it until it is his last day home and it's about 10 pm.  I FINALLY did it (huge thank you to our home teachers for getting me to get it done!).

The whole reason he wanted this appointment was so that he could talk to the bishop about himself being the one to baptize Nash (yea, we're super on the ball).  I was skeptical about the whole thing, I won't lie.  Not a ton of things have changed since Samantha was getting ready to be baptized and the bishop wouldn't let him do it then (a few things have changed, but nothing earth shattering).

Travis came home from work on Saturday instead of Sunday (slow week) and we all made it to church (hopefully without infecting anyone).  Travis had his meeting with the bishop later that evening.  When he came home I jokingly asked him if he'd had to break any toes (he joked that he would break the bishop's toes if he told him no again).  He said "Nope."  So, guess who's going to be ordained a priest on Sunday before he goes back to work?  Yup...we're making progress slow but steady :)

As soon as we have a date scheduled for our Nashie Boy for a baptism, we'll let you know!

Christmas 2013

Santa sure found us again this year!  Boy, my kids are spoiled!

We didn't go to Manti for the Christmas celebrations down there this year.  It was sad.  That's the first time since we've been married that we haven't gone (fourteen years).  I just didn't want to make that trek without Travis.  I was glad we ended ups staying home because Brooke was throwing up that Friday and Saturday (the 2th & 21st).

We spent Christmas Eve with my parents and siblings.  My mom sewed her guts out for the kids this year.  Everything she made was a huge hit.  So was everything she actually bought!  We had dinner before we opened presents.  After we opened presents the adults played an "adult" version of apples to apples.  We laughed til our sides hurt!  We may be busting that game back out for New Year's Eve!

Christmas Eve:

My mom knew Brooke was getting a kitchen this year so she got her some more dishes to go with it. 

Since Brooke loves to "cook dinner" (pull out salt, pepper, sugar and any other spices she can reach and dump into any bowl or pan that is sitting near by and stir until it's mostly all on the floor and counter) my mom made both Brooke and Sunny the cutest apron and hat!  Brooke was super excited about getting her own apron (all of her siblings have them but she's the only one with a hat!). 

Travis & I went out to finish up Christmas shopping the Monday before Christmas.  My mom needed one more small item to finish Brooke and told me that if I found something to just get it for her and we'd get even.  There were several things I debated about (play make up, a barbie and a toy camera).  We went into Sportsman's Warehouse and found a pink pistol.  I wasn't sure she'd LOVE it, but she has been known to steal her brother's and "shoot:" him with it.  So I figured that at the very least she'd get to play on an even field with him.  Apparently, this item has been THE gift of the year.  Girlfriend LOVES that pistol!  She's gotten quite feisty about it whenever anyone else picks up her pistol!  

 Nash was wanting another extreme dot to dot book.  In case you haven't heard of these, they are these amazing dot to dot pictures that have dots that go up to about 1,500.  Nash has nearly completed two books already.  He LOVES these suckers.  He was really wanting the prehistoric one and wouldn't you know, that's the one Grandma got for him!

 Caleb is by far my most imaginative child.  He loves to pretend.  My mom found this pattern to make a fort, of sorts, that looks like a pirate ship and is made out of felt.  It just gets thrown over a card table so it isn't huge, but it is AWESOME!  All of the kids were climbing in and out of it all night.  I have a feeling it's going to be a permanently set up item at our place!

 The red spot is a mail box and you can actually put things in it.  This will be great because whenever all the kids play they send each other mail through the bottom of their bedroom doors!  At least now his mail won't lay on the floor for me to slip on!

 Nash got a skateboard for Christmas last year.  However, not long (only a few months) after he got it, it got left in a spot where it accidentally got run over.  Really a combination of my fault, his fault & Trav's fault.  I told him to put it in the area he did but should have told him to put it closer to the house.  He was old enough to know that the area I had told him to put it is the spot where dad parks the trailer and it should have been put back by the bikes.  Travis was backing the trailer into its spot at night and didn't see it and drove right over it and split it in two.  Since that very sad incident, he has been DYING to get another skateboard.  When he opened this one my brother looked at me and asked, "Aren't you at the dr.'s office enough?"  Yes, but apparently I'm a gluten for punishment!  What can I say?  The kid has seriously been dying to get a new one and I did feel partially responsible for the outcome of the last one.

 My in laws have an old school light bright.  Caleb LOVES this sucker.  He busts it out every time he's over there.  The one my mom got him is a cube so it has four sides he can do pictures on.  The sides aren't as big as the old school one, but this one is super cool.  The sides fold down so you can actually work on it like it's laying flat on the table but you can still push your lights in.  Brookelyn quite likes this gift as well!

 Working in a fabric store is both a blessing and a curse for my poor mother.  At least she doesn't unload the freight anymore so she doesn't see every piece of fabric that comes in!  She saw this flannel and it just screamed Caleb to her (it's farm if you can't tell).  She had no idea what she was going to do with it when she got it, but she knew she had to get it for him.  She ended up making it into this awesome robe.  This is a great idea because Caleb LOVES his robes.  He calls them his ninja suits and he wears them at all times of the day!

 Sam hates poodles as much as my brother.  My mom made my brother pj pants with one side (the front) out of this fabric.  She used the rest of the fabric to make Sam a night gown.  She loves the new night gown (it's comfy) and the fact that it matches her favorite uncle Zacc!

 Sam loves Zebra print and this jacket is from a pattern she picked out.  I think the jacket turned out absolutely adorable and Sam LOVES it!

 To be a smart alec my mom made my brother's poor dog this scarf and leg warmers.  Poor Fidget.  She kept trying to get away from us and she went over to Sam to hide!  Zacc wants a tutu for her so I may have to make that for her for his birthday!

 These two girls are finally at an age where they play nice together (mostly....most of the time :) ).  They had a blast climbing into all the big boxes and watching tv while all tucked into their box.

 This is what our place looked like Christmas morning before the kids attacked it.

 "Are you kitten me?" is Sam's new mantra for about the last month or so.  When I saw this shirt that said, "Are you kitten me right meow?" I HAD to get it for her.  She loves it!

 Brookelyn LOVES her "Thomas-Jerry" these days.  I found this shirt and knew she'd love it.  She does!

 I think it's a safe bet that she loves her new Minnie jammies.

 The girls got a new tv to go in their room (mostly because Sam's new Karaoke machine needs to be hooked to a tv for it to work and I know she prefers to go in her room and use her window seat as a stage rather than come out in the living room).

 This boy finally got a new cowboy hat and cowboy boots!

 I got Sam a mustache cake pan because she's totally into mustaches (her and her best friend at school are referred to as "mustache 1" and "mustache 2").  I do believe we will be having a mustache theme birthday party this year!

 These dress up shoes are the best!  They are high heels with Minnie Mouse AND the bows light up when you walk!  Score!

Christmas morning after we had all our fun at home we headed out to Travis's parents house.  We had breakfast and waited for everyone else to get there.  We finally got to open gifts around 3 pm.  Nash got a remote control helicopter from grandma and grandpa and has absolutely loved it.  He said it is his favorite gift this year (and we got the kid a basketball hoop because he loves baseketball and is set to start Jr Jazz in January).  Way to go grandma and grandpa!

As you can tell the kids were spoiled rotten (as usual).  It's so much fun to watch them open gifts.  I have lots more fun on Christmas as an adult than I did as a kid and I don't get nearly as many gifts!  I just love watching how excited my kids get about their gifts.

Since Christmas day we've been pretty low key.  We bought my Aunt Nikki's piano (they got a baby grand for Christmas) so Travis's dad and brother helped Travis move it to our place on Thursday.  We spent the entire day moving the tv, entertainment center, etc. out of our living room upstairs and setting it all up in the basement.  The preschool kids will be completely thrown off when they come back at the end of the break!  I love that my living room is now a spot where we can sit and visit rather than have a tv blaring!  Sam has loved the piano already.  She'll just walk up, sit down and start playing.  She rarely did that with the keyboard.  I hope that having a real piano will keep them excited about piano lessons and help them continue to learn and improve their skills.

Travis heads back to work tomorrow (Sunday) and the kids and I don't go back to school until Thursday.  I think the last few days of our break will be spent just here at home being low key.  I have a lot of things I want to get done for preschool and I did manage to kinda clean up my sewing room so I can sew some things that I've had on the back burner for a long time.  I guess we'll see how productive the kids will let me be!

Here's to a happy (and healthy) 2014!