Easter!

We had fun at the annual Easter egg hunt at Nanny and Papa's house. We missed them being there. They are on a Mission in Boston. Brian and Kerstin are living in there home right now and we decided to still do it there. The kids love it and look forward to it every year!

Jack, Abbey, Jayne

Tyler, Matt, Hailey

Tyler helping Anna find eggs. She had a lot and didn't really need help, but Tyler, knowing she was younger thought she might need a little help!

After the younger kids hunt, the older kids get a turn!

Emily, Lauryn, Sydney, Emma, Melissa, Ashlee, Katie, Brittany

Sunday after church we decorated Easter eggs. All of us love hard boiled eggs and so we always decorate two dozen or so. The kids always eat hard boiled eggs for lunch on Easter.

This year I made dresses for the girls. I hadn't done this for 8 years! I actually enjoyed it until it started getting stressful Saturday night. I didn't finish until two in the morning. I am not a night person! I sew occasionally and don't really enjoy it, but I do it because I love the results.

While I was making the Easter dresses, Tyler asked me what I was going to make for him. I told him that I would get him a new shirt and tie. He does not like to wear ties because he doesn't like the top button buttoned. Sometimes he will clip a tie on at the second button and his sisters tell him it looks funny and so he takes it off. The night before Easter he said, "where's my Easter suit?" I told him he would get to see his new tie and shirt in the morning. He was excited to wear it and clipped the tie on at the second button. When he was told it didn't look good there, he wouldn't wear the tie to church, but we were very excited he wore it for the picture. This is his first time buttoning the top button. Hopefully he'll try it again. He sure looks handsome in a tie!

Guest and Talent Day

It was Brittany's turn for guest and talent day at her school on Friday in her art and music class. She was given about 30 minutes and was asked to share a talent and have a guest share a talent. She asked Grandma Nacy to come. Brittany wanted to dance, but couldn't very well on carpet and so she decided to show the dvd of her dance from last year. She also told a little about herself. She said her favorite colors are light lime green, purple, blue, and pink. Her favorite food is Hawaiian Pizza and her favorite animal is a hippo.

Grandma Nancy told us about the changes in her life from a bad car accident and how she started painting lessons after that. She showed some of her wonderful art work and taught the kids a lot about art. The kids in class were very interested and the teacher was very impressed. After school Brittany told me that she learned a lot that she didn't know about Grandma Nancy and that her friend told her that she loved it and it was very interesting!

After school Grandma Nancy and Papa took her to Ikea and bought her a hippo, her favorite animal, to thank her for inviting them.

Dance, Dance, Dance!

In March the LA Dance Magic convention comes to Ogden. This is Emily's 3rd year going. Amber had gone for six years and was so sad to not go and dance. She really misses dancing. We always stay with Grandma Nancy and Papa. This year was Emily's first year getting to stay in the hotel. She stayed with her friend, Dallis and her mom and sister. She had a lot of fun! The rest of us stayed with Papa and Grandma Nancy and then we went to watch the competition the next day. The convention lasts for two full days where they are trained by professionals. The first half of the second day there is a competition.

Emily and Dallis

Brittany went to her first competition this year. It was the Spotlight Dance Cup in Bountiful. Her team did great! They received a Ruby award, the second highest of four ratings. For their first competition, this is excellent! Emily also competed in this competition and did very well too.

two of Brittany's friends, Brittany

Fun with cousins!

We had lots of fun visits from family in March! First, Greg, Dione, and Bethanie came to visit us. Bethanie's personality is as cute as she is. A few weeks later Danica and her boys (James, Jarom, Abram, and Porter) came and stayed with us for a weekend while their dad was out of town. We all love it when they come, but Tyler especially has fun playing with the boys!

 

 

Jon and Lissa also came to visit last month. We had a fun gathering at Chris and Melanie's home. The kids enjoyed dressing up and just being together!

Jon, Isaac, Jayne, Andrew
Matt, Jack, Tyler

Emma, Lauryn, Brittany

Abbey

Ella, who always loves to dress up like a princess!

Emily and Melissa playing Pirates of the Caribbean songs while Avery was squealing in delight!

(Emily had just returned from a dance competition. Those are not her normal clothes!)

Last week Grandma Nancy and Papa stayed at the Marriott and Thanksgiving Point for Grandma Nancy's birthday. We and the Kester's went swimming there! It was fun to be with grandparents and cousins again!

Brittany and Emily

Jarom and Tyler

Ashlee's walking!

Yesterday, Ashlee had her "six weeks after surgery" follow up appointment and she was so excited when she was told to ditch the crutches. She still has to wear her boot at all times for two weeks, but she is walking, yea! The person who lent her the scooter needed it back for a relative two weeks ago and so she was on crutches the past two weeks. When we were at her appointment yesterday, we saw the lady with the scooter that she had used. She could tell it was the exact one because of a ribbon and other things on it. Funny, huh?

Healthy Snacks

I really like for my kids to eat healthy snacks. Usually after school they have fruit or sometimes a whole grain banana or pumpkin bread. A few days ago Brittany told me that she was tired of always having fruit and healthy snacks after school. I decided to take a healthy snack and make it a little more fun. I made fruit kabobs with a little chocolate drizzled on it. (They were a foot long!) The kids were all excited and loved them.

Brittany, enjoying her fruit kabob!

Winter again!!

We are all really wanting spring weather. We've had pretty nice weather, but the beginning of this week got really cold again. The kids didn't have school on Monday and they were so excited to play outside. They were so disappointed that it turned cold on Monday and began snowing, but I heard them talking and they decided to go outside and have fun anyway!

Tyler, Emily, Brittany

Emily loves to dance

Emily loves to dance. She is becoming a really good dancer. She loves her ballet and jazz classes. In one of her dances, she has a solo. Everyone does a pose on the floor while she does a triple turn and a few other steps.

Rock climbing course

Mike and I are both advisers for Ashlee's venturing group. We just finished a rock climbing, repelling, and belaying class. I am learning to belay in this picture while Mike is climbing. Ashlee took the course too, but with her broken ankle she just had to watch the climbing part. She loves to rock climb and rappel and has done it many times in the outdoors too, so it was hard for her to not participate.

Ashlee's cast removal

Ashlee got her cast off this past Thursday, just 2 weeks after her surgery.

She's anticipating what her leg will look like as he's finishing up. The first thing that she did after we got home was to go shave her leg! She was also surprised how much muscle she had lost.

She now has a removable boot. She's supposed to take it off three times a day and move her ankle around. She starts physical therapy this Wednesday and will be in therapy for four weeks. She can begin putting weight on her foot in about three weeks and most likely walking in five. Ashlee has never once complained through this whole thing, but I do know that she really misses gymnastics and can't wait to go back to workout and also to teach.

Tyler

About a week ago, Tyler was looking under the couch for something. There was a pencil on the floor and some how the sharpened point poked into his cheek with a lot of pressure. The earaser part of the pencil must have pushed against the couch leg or carpet. He came running to me screaming and he had a deep punture wound in his left cheek. We scrubbed it with a new toothbrush to try to help prevent permanent color. (When the color goes deep into the skin it is like a tattoo and is permanent.) It seems to be healing nicely, but you can still see the pencil color on his left cheek. It does look a little bit like a freckle so it won't really be a big deal, but I do hope it's not so deep that it's permanent.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I woke up this morning to a beautiful and delicious bouquet of flowers for breakfast! Michael woke up early to make this for me. I love him so much and am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband. Exactly 21 years ago today, he proposed to me. This makes Valentine's Day even more special for us!

Ashlee's surgery

Ashlee had surgery on her ankle today. She has a pin in the bone to hold it in place and he stitched her shredded ligaments. The pin will dissolve on it's own in about a year. She is home and doing well, but she is in quite a bit of pain.

She has a big purple cast. Before she went into surgery, the nurse asked her what color she wanted and she said pink, but she woke up with a purple cast! I guess they forgot.

She loves the big teddy bear from grandma Nancy and Papa!

Ashlee's broken ankle

This past Friday, Ashlee broke her ankle at gymnastics. She was doing a backhandspring, backtuck on the beam and landed a little twisted. Her ankle immediately swelled up about the size of half of a tennis ball! On Saturday she had it x-rayed and splinted. Tomorrow, she has an appointment with an Orthopedist to have it casted. She will be off her ankle for about 6 weeks and then in physical therapy for a while. She is in pain, but has a positive attitude.

Ashlee unwrapped her ankle to put lotion on today and look at all the bruising she has from the break. (It's been four days)

A neighbor brought Ashlee over this scooter to borrow. It makes it easier to get around than crutches. She uses the scooter at school and at home on the main level, but she uses the crutches on the stairs and downstairs.

Ashlee, giving her friend, Erika a ride!

Tyler's first school report.

Tyler studied about penguins and then did a report on them in school. He did a great job and enjoyed learning about them. I forgot my camera yesterday when he did the report and so I brought him to school early today to have him do his report with me filming it.

Venture Crew Biathalon

Ashlee is a Venture Scout. She is one of the youth leaders of the crew. She loves it! They go rock climbing, caving, repelling, rafting and much more!

Ashlee with the other youth leaders.

Mike and I got to go and do a biathalon with them last Saturday morning (January 24th). We had a lot of fun. The biathalon was a race with cross country skiing and archery. Mike received the most archery points out of the whole group. He got 85 points out of a possible 100. He hit the bullseye almost everytime. I didn't know he was a regular Robin Hood!

Ashlee, coming in from the biathalon. She left 3rd (they left every 3 minutes), but was the first to come in!

Tyler turned 6 on January 20

Tyler had a fun birthday party at Classic. He invited six friends from our neighborhood and had five cousins come. The kids played in the jungle area, ate pizza, cake, and ice cream and then played lazer tag. They all had a lot of fun! Amber made Tyler's cake. She decorated it with planets and Obi-wan Kenobi and Yoda with lightsabers! What a fun birthday!

Las Vegas

Ashlee had a gymnastics meet in Las Vegas this past Saturday. It was not her best meet, but she had a lot of fun! We had a fun visit with my brother Troy and his family. Troy has three boys and Tyler really enjoyed playing with his cousins.

Ashlee's floor routine

Ashlee and Erika at the meet.

After the meet, we went to M&M World!

Tyler thought this M&M jacket was pretty cool, but it was too expensive to buy.

Brittany, Emily, and Tyler thought the stuffed M&Ms were fun.

Mike, Emily, Brittany, and Tyler in front of New York, New York

We went back to Troy and Deedra's home and enjoyed roasted marshmallows for smores in their gas fire pit and enjoyed their hot tub. Mike, Ashlee, Erika, Emily, and Brittany all jumped off of the waterfall into the 46 degree pool Multiple times! Brave or crazy? I'd say crazy! It was soooo cold!

Ashlee, Erika

Emily and Brittany heading for the hot tub in the 46 degree water after jumping in!

Mike's splash! My camera delayed a little and I just got his splash, but I had to put the picture in to prove that he jumped too!

Troy, Austen,
Tyler, Kyler, Brittany, Collin, Emily

Troy heated the pool for us all day long on Sunday. Monday morning we had so much fun swimming. This time we all got in. It was only 58 degrees outside and the pool got up to 67 degrees. It was still quite cold, but we got used to the water pretty quickly. It was so much fun playing basketball in the pool, going under the waterfall, jumping off the cliffs, going down the slide, and being in the really warm hot tub. Troy and Deedra have a fun pool! We plan to go again sometime!

Emily, Erika, Brittany, Ashlee

The baby blessing of Chloe Aliza Jones

My niece, Chloe Aliza Jones was blessed today. We went to the blessing and then to Chris and Melanie's home for a nice lunch and visit with family.

Emma, Melissa, Katie

Chloe

Hailey

There are a lot of January birthdays in the family! Amy made cupcakes for all the kids and put a candle in the the cupcakes that were for the birthday kids. She also made a chocolate cake for the adults and put a candle in it for Mike's, Mark's and Nanny's birthdays. Mike was the only one of the three there, so he got to blow the candle out!

Abbey, Emma, Matt, Jack, Tyler, Hailey, Jayne, Avery

New Year's Eve!

We had a really fun New Year's Eve. We had Mikes siblings, Chris and Melanie, Amy and Corey, Brian and Kerstin and my sister Danica (Nathan had to work), and all their kids over for a fun night games and food.

Melissa, Danica, Amber

The oldest kids played games with the adults, the middle kids danced and played silly dress up, the youngest kids played the Wii the entire night. We had one Wii with about 8 kids around the age 6 playing the Wii and two remotes. They figured out their own turn taking. We never heard one argument or complaint the entire evening! Amazing!

Porter, Emma, Sydney, Brittany

Lauryn

Yeah, It's the new year!! We watched the last few minutes of the New York countdown!




Sydney, Amy, Katie, Brittany, Emily, Lauryn