Year of the DRAGON (2012)

With Chinese new years this week, Wesly had fun learning about different animal years and things that the Chinese celebrate. Wesly has ALWAYS been fascinated with China. Remember this?
Wesly wanted to know how to get to China when he was about 3, and at the time he related most things to Dora...well, over the mnts, through the ocean, around Japan, and there is China! chris made this map with powerpoint or something and it was a hit! Travis wanted one too. Wesly always talks about china and he loves Chinese food, well, you get the point. Anyhow, Chinese new years. Wesly memorized part of the order of the animals for the different years and was asking what year all of our family members were born so he could tell us what animal year we were born in, and what it meant. We spent a day making a calendar for him and writing in the years, I should take a picture and post it. It is so cute, he did a GREAT job.

Well, Wesly told us that our new baby sister will be born in the year of the dragon. I suggested that maybe we name her after a dragon we know. Toothless? maybe?

Wesly quickly replied, "what about Whispering Death?"

..........uh.........

(it is the name of another dragon on How to Train a Dragon (it is in the book Hiccup reads))

(we had to hold back laughing hysterically)

Organizing

Today I have been doing a lot of organizing, well, filing. Let's just say we have a large filing cabinet, well, we do. Apparently it fits a lot more in there than I realized. Today I realized that we have NEVER thrown away any bill we have ever gotten. Okay, maybe that is exaggerating slightly. However, when I am finding bills dated 2004 (we got married May 2003), clearly, this cabinet is a black hole. Here's the kicker though, I didn't mean to find all these bills, I was just trying to empty a box that was filled with paperwork that needed to be filed. I texted Chris and sarcastically told him the box was WAY too full and why haven't these been filed? He texted me back and said the filing cabinet needed to be cleaned out and reorganized...apparently I didn't understand the scope of that statement. It isn't by fault of either one of us in particular :) I know I like to keep things around a while, and he like to keep tabs on bills. However we did created this little child in the picture below...surely there is organization in our genes somewhere.

Nathan decided that the silverware drawer needed to be organized one day (back in Dec) and he matched all of the plasticware colors together. Then Yesterday he told me to come look at the pantry, and he had reorganized all the cans!! he made it look nice, he said it was "all messed up" and later when I used some things and didn't put them back exactly where he had put them, he told me I messed up the pantry and I needed to put things back where he put them.

Clearly we are organization gurus, or at least, some of our genes are. :)

(oh, and I think I came across the 2003 bills in the bottom drawer, but I quickly shut the drawer so I can deal with it later) :)

Christmas Break 2011 - part 3 - ICE SKATING

One morning while staying at Grandma's house, she suggested maybe we look into going ice skating with the kids. We looked it up right away and found out that the ice rink in Provo had a session in 1 hour that was for families and only $2.50 per person, including skate rental!! It was for about an hour and a half and we had to leave quick if we wanted to go. So of course, we packed up and high tailed it over there!

Grandma was super nice to take us out and even joined us on the ice. We were a little late, but an hour was PERFECT timing to please everyone. It was the first time for all the kids to do any kind of skating and the boys were skating on their own by the end, while Brelee was so tired she just wanted to put all her weight on your arms and still skate.

The kids talked for DAYS about skating and I think it will be a new tradition at grandma's house.

The camera settings got bumped in the diaper bag, but even with some blury pics, you get the jist...fun, fun, fun!!!

Levi, getting the kids to settle down for minute before we got in the car. He told them he had a secret to tell them..lol he had all ears!

Brelee, unsure at first...

better...

...super excited!

We started off with no walkers, and then we were able to borrow some part way through. The boys learned best without them, they did a great job balancing and using the wall. The walkers were fun for them to play with though, they could go fast and felt very independent. They did good taking turns and being brave and going out on their own.

It looks like I needed the walkers, I promise, I was just helping the kids. All of the pics on the ice were taken within just a few minutes. :) I was rarely holding onto them.

But I almost always had a little helper :)

We had SOOOOO much fun ice skating!!!

When we got home the kids put on their snow gear to play in the half inch of snow. It didn't last long, but they had been SO EXCITED to play in grandma's snow...the kids are hoping for more next year. HOWEVER, Chris and I were pretty grateful for wonderful driving conditions.

Chris and my brother Levi (14 yrs old) built this Chess set. Levi built the board in a class at school and Levi and Chris put together all of the game pieces from bolts and washers and other hardware items. Chris had been wanting to build this for a long time and he knew Levi would find it just as interesting. It was fun for Chris to spend the time with Levi, and then the boys enjoyed putting it all to use!

Brelee and Micaela playing computer.

My Mom has been collecting pieces to put together a collage of family pictures and I think it is turning out amazing. Pictures printed, frames painted, pictures inserted, and the layout all set up. Mom has done a great job, I love her new wall set up!

Of course a day isn't complete without Christmas stories. Especially when Dad reads them to you, or grandma and grandpa...and Levi looks pretty comfy himself. ;)

29

In my last hour before my 30th birthday...I just have to say what a GREAT year it has been. The most exciting thing is that it can just keep getting better too. I love my life, I love my children, I love my husband, and I have a million things to be grateful for. I thought about complaining a little about how old I feel some days, but HELLO, I am growing a healthy adorable baby girl right now, and she needs some energy. I will be able to work out and race the kids to the bus stop in a few months. For now they get slow pokey Mom, who is learning her limits and has days on the couch when they talk me into too much. But back to the amazing life; I get to snuggle with sick kids on the couch all day tomorrow, we WILL be watching movies, and we won't feel bad :) AND we get ice cream cake. Nathan is excited to help me make it tomorrow, and I am excited to stack ice cream sandwiches and pour more chocolate on them too! Happy January 11th to everyone tomorrow, it's a great day!

Christmas break 2011 - part 2 IDAHO

Next stop, IDAHO!

My sister Amy and her family live in Paul, Idaho. Just north and a little west of my parents, about 3 hours. We only got to spend one day there, but it sure was fun and went by WAY too fast! I can't believe I didn't take my camera out to the barn or the chicken coop. There was SO MUCH wind it was SO COLD!! It amazes me how warm my hoodie feels at home, but add some wind and it does NOTHING. I became close friends with my winter jacket. the right gear can work wonders. but it was so cold, I wasn't thinking...until you get into the barn.

It is like stepping into a whole different world once you can escape the wind. The barn was warm, and there was tons of space for the kids to play and of course there were bunnies. I need to get the pics off of Chris' phone, because of course I requested he take some at least. The older kids loved playing with the barrels the most, but Brelee of course loved holding the bunnies. She even wanted to catch the chickens again when we headed over to the coop. The older kids were barrel walking and just playing push wars with the barrels, the fun things you can do with a 55 gallon drum.

I think this game is called Piarates Cove, the boys had fun playing this one.

Sole and Melissa were SO helpful playing with the younger kids. I love it! THANK YOU GIRLS! Here Sole is reading to Brelee Kate.

Melissa, playing chess with Trav-o

Sole playing puppies with the youngest kids, here sole is the puppy I think, per the leash.

Good game Dad and Wes

Attached

Sean and Wesly play chess, Sean barely escaped alive, Wesly had to tell Sean that he won. :)

playing puppies with sole...they got in trouble and had to go to bed. Ezra Kreed is 2 months older than Brelee.

Sole, playing puppies with the youngest kiddos, Brelee, Kreedy, and Nater Taters

Amy is amazing :) I have been wanting to teach WEsly how to do addition where you carry over, I just wasn't sure of a good way to go about it, but I knew he was ready and they aren't doing it at school yet. So of course, super mom Amy to the rescue! She helped us out and now we need to practice, but I think he did great.

Then we had to get out all the sleeping bags for play.

some computer time

I know neither Amy nor I will love this picture, but I had to document a little real life. She is due any day now (around jan 10th) and I am 3 months behind her. Go figure I think I look bigger...and she is apparently at the biggest of any pregnancy. She probably will be mad I posted this but I love being at the same place in life as friends and family and experiencing things together. I had to get a pic! We have several children close in age (Trav and Enoch 2 months apart, Brelee and Kreed 2 mo apart, and now these two (2-3 mo apart) (...she is waiting to find out if it is a girl or boy, I'm hoping GIRL! for selfish reasons, but regardless they will be GREAT FRIENDS!) The other fun thing is her having older kids too. They help SO MUCH! AND Amy can teach me things I have yet to go through. She has 2 girls and 3 boys, I have three boys and soon to be 2 girls, we get to swap lots of fun things, including clothes for a while there.

Amy is an amazing Mom and we are so lucky to have her family in our lives. We love you guys and can't wait for the next visit!