Zachy-man

Waiting for spring to come!

Cousin sleepover at Grandma's

Enjoying some ice cream on a spring day

Silly little man

Zach is definitely a Daddy's boy! He always wants to be doing what Jake is doing, even taking a nap!

Playing peek-a-boo in my bathroom cupboard

Happy Birthday Brooke!

Brooke had a fairly low key birthday this year. Last year we had a big birthday party for her so this year we decided to just celebrate with family. Although I did let her have Cheyenne come over and play the day before Brooke's birthday. Her 9th birthday started out with breakfast in bed. I decided to make her cinnamon roll pancakes with a candle in it and sang happy birthday to her. She absolutley loved this so I am going to try to do this every year for the kids' birthdays. After breakfast she got ready for school, well kind of ready, because it was pajama day at school. I took some cupcakes into her classroom around lunch time and she seemed to be having a fun filled day. When she got home we opened presents, she got a dolphin pillow pet and an American girl doll bed which are two of her favorite things right now. After presents she went to her violin lessons, which she is getting pretty good at playing, then after violin practice she wanted to help me make her chocolate cake with blue frosting. She picked blue frosting because blue is her favorite color. Overall she had a fun birthday! Brooke is such a loving, caring, kind-hearted girl. I couldn't ask for a more wonderful daughter. Happy Birthday Brookie!!

Basketball

Tyler played basketball again this year. This year he really enjoyed it because they ended up winning a few games but he mostly liked it because Jake volunteered to be the assistant coach for the team. Tyler is getting better every year and has a lot of fun. Good job Tyler...and Jake!!

"Snow" much fun!!

Jake decided to take Kennady and Zach out to play in the snow for a little bit. The kids had so much fun. Jake is such a good daddio!!

St. George vacation

We started the new year off right by heading south to St. George for some much needed sun. Danny and Cassie said that they would watch Polly for us while we were gone, so we were able to stay a night with them before we headed off to St. George. It wasn't the warmest time to go to St. George but my mom and dad rented a condo at Las Palmas resort for the whole month of January so we decided to go and visit them for a few days. We had fun swimming at the recreation center, going on a hike in Snow Canyon, checking out the Tuacuhn Theatre, going to "Jumping Jacks" and of course doing some shopping. On the way back from St. George we stopped and spent a night with Andy and his family in Cedar City. That night we went to a gymnastics meet, SUU vs. BYU. That was so much fun and the girls especially loved watching it since they are taking gymnastic lessons. The next morning we headed north to Mapleton, where we stayed with Grandpa and Grandma for a night. It was good to see them and we were treated to be able to go with them in the morning to the MTC to hear them give talks in their sacrament meeting to the elders preparing to go on their missions to Brazil. One of the elders came up to Tyler afterwards and said, "Are you planning to go on a mission". Tyler said that he was excited and then the elder took off his tie, handed it to Tyler and said that he could keep it because he was going to need it. That made Tyler's day. He has been wearing that big, purple tie to church for the last month. It has been pretty neat for him to be able to get a sneek peak at what the MTC is like.

Tyler lost one of his molars while on a walk with Grandma. He is losing teeth left and right lately!

Zach loved watching all of the trucks and backhoes from the window.

Zach showing Grandpa the way

No more thumb-sucking....at least for Kennady

Kennady is officially no longer a thumb sucker. I could not resist posting this because it is such a huge accomplishment for her. I am so proud of her for determination and success!! It is a big deal for her since she has sucked her thumb since she was a baby, almost six years. When kindergarten started she insisted on wearing a band aid on her thumb while she was at school, but the second she got in the car after school she would rip it off and suck her thumb until she fell asleep at night. I did not know how to help her until I decided to try bribery. I told her that if she did not suck her thumb for a week, then she could have a special "girl" party with some of her friends. That was the ticket. The first few days were torture for her. At first she just constantly wore her band aid, then after a week or so she said she would try to leave her band aid off. Then weeks turned to months and she did it!! So we had her friends, Maren and Kendyl, come to "King Burger" with us. She had fun playing with them on the slide and mostly loved telling everyone why she was getting to have a party. Way to go Kennady. Hopefully something similar will happen when we try to help Zach stop his thumb-sucking.

This is the last picture of Kennady sucking her thumb. Yeah!

Merry Christmas!

 Christmas started off for us at 6:00 in the morning.  The kids must have been on Santa's "very nice" list and they were all really surprised and excited to see what Santa brought for them.  Zach didn't quite know what was going on but he quickly became alert when he saw the truck/car ramp that Santa brought him.  Tyler got an air pistol, Brooke got an American girl doll and Kenna got a Leap Pad.

Ready to come down and see what Santa brought

Love seeing the kids happy and surprised

This year the the kids saved up a little bit of their own money to get each other Christmas presents.  This picture show how Brooke and Kennady ended up getting each other the same thing, a ballerina doll.

 After opening presents we had our Christmas breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausage and hashbrowns.  Yummy!!

After breakfast we went to church.  After church we relaxed for a little bit and then got ready to head to Idaho for a Christmas dinner with my family.  We stayed there a couple of nights and then came home and recovered.  It was a great Christmas and we are truly blessed and thankful.