Cousins and Valentines Day

Last weekend, my two nieces and two nephews stayed with us for a few days. It was so fun! These cousins get along so well with each other! It helped that the weather was so beautiful all weekend. The first night they played an intense game of basketball. Boys against girls.

The girls had their first facials with a homemade avocado recipe...

and did crazy make-up and hair...

We went to the park....


and played a lot more basketball!

These two were the most competitive. It was friendly competition, but they were in it to win!

And after fighting over the little trike, these three came up with a great solution. It was a bike/stroller train. They were all able to ride at the same time. They rode this way for hours around the house!
And then, one of my most favorite holidays! VALENTINES DAY!!! We did the usual traditions...of course decorating and eating sugar cookies!
and decorating the house like crazy for Dad (this year it was for Dad/Uncle Mark)
There are a lot of reasons that we love him!
and the traditional Valentines dinner with make-your-own heart shaped pizza. Not very fancy, but the kids love it!


It was such a fun time but as you can see, since it took me a week to post this, it took me a while to recover! HaHa!

Eight years old and baptized!

It was an exciting day for Sam. He had been counting down this day since Thanksgiving! We heard the countdown number almost every morning! Then, on the day of his birthday, he was so excited that he couldn't sleep in. He was up by six. All other other kids were fast asleep so he helped me make his "8" cookies. I LOVE this guy! It was so fun to spend my favorite ours of the day (morning) just with him!

When everyone woke up, we opened presents and ate breakfast.

He was sooo excited to get baptized on his birthday! Here he is with his dad.

and here's the family (who cares if we are not all looking at the camera!)

Then lunch at our house.

I don't know why I don't have any pictures of Mark's side of the family! I guess I wasn't doing a very good job at taking pictures. But they were there, and I do love them!!

Then it was cake time...

Congrats Sam!!!!
We sure love you!

Sweet Megan

I have to record this priceless moment that happened last night...

The kids and I were on our way to the church to help with a cleaning assignment (Mark was already there.) Jessica and Megan were fighting over a water bottle. It was the end of the day and I really didn't know if I could handle the screaming over something SOO little. Just as I was ready to get involved in this quarrel, Megan sweetly said, "OK Jessie, you can have it," and she passed her the water bottle. With a lot of enthusiasm, I said, "Oh Megan, you are so sweet! Thank you so much for sharing!" She quickly responded, "Mom, I didn't do it for you, I did it for Jesus!" Oh man, talk about melting my heart! So, I took this opportunity to talk to the kids about how Megan is so right....when we serve and help others, we are making Jesus so happy. Then I asked if they knew how Jesus says thank you. They came up with many ideas which were good and then I added, "yes, it's the feeling you feel inside that feels so good and makes you so happy." I asked Megan if she felt that and she said yes. I said, that is Jesus saying thank you.

When we got to the church, Jessica started fighting with Megan again about opening the door. Megan quickly let Jessica do it without arguing. I didn't say anything but as we walked away from the car, Megan said, "Mom, Jesus just said thank you again!"

Tubing at Brianhead

Ok, so this was about a month ago, but I still need to document it because it was fun!
Oh, did I say fun?? I meant FREEZING!!! (9 degrees with a light wind to be exact)
But it just didn't phase anyone (except for me!) The cousins had a blast!





So did Jessie...


and Megs...

and Sam...

and Tommy...

and Rach...
(how sad that the number of pictures decreases as each child gets older! Sorry Rachel, you got jipped! I only have one picture of you!)

I mostly hung out in the "warm-up van."
We tried to defrost frozen toes and entertain the little ones.
Then we headed back to Michelle's in Parowan to eat and drink hot cocoa! The cousins played more.
And me and my sisters (minus one) got to hang out with our oldest brother who was visiting. We rarely get to see him so it was a ton of fun!

Meet Waldo...

Tommy and Mark made a cake for the Father/Son's Cake Bake-off. They've already done a hot dog and a dragon so this year they chose to make a scout boy.
Here he is half way done.
He needed some teeth. Good thing we have a dentist in the house
and here's Waldo!
They finished after 10:00pm the night before. Everyone was tired!
Goodnight Waldo! He slept in the outside fridge.
Here are some of the other awesome cakes at pack meeting the next night.

Good job Tommy!

house bike

Lately, Jessica has decided that she needs to have her bike inside. She doesn't walk around the house anymore. She only rides her bike.
Down the hall...
From room to room...
of course with her dance backpack and tap shoes on...because she has worn them everyday from morning till bedtime since she started her dance class last week.
I don't mind her riding her bike around except for what it does to my baseboards.

But Tommy and Sam have a new Saturday chore...clean the baseboards with a magic eraser. Sam thought it was pretty fun last Saturday to wipe off all those black marks!
It only took a day for her to make more marks. But it's OK, I only have a couple more months of having a three year old. I'm going to enjoy every second of it!