St. George

In March we went to St George with Grammy, Grampy and Shell, Greg (the Cooks-haha).
We stayed in a great condo with tons of room and a huge kitchen (very important to not be on top of each other as breakfast and lunch are being prepared simultaneously). I didn't get any pictures of the Ranger ride, or the 3 1/2 hours each day the boys spent in the pool, OR the Gypsum mine that I gathered a slew of gypsum that I have had a ball making jewelry from. Not so good at chronicling our lives in photos...oh well.

The outdoor patio looked out over the pool. Abby would yell "Hi" to passer-bys, and her brothers.

Grampy and Mini-me watching TV

Abby was such a trooper. It was a 3 mile round trip to the lava tubes and Abby walked most of the way---that's a long way for those little nubbin legs.

LOVE this picture...just need Mantha and Alex and I would have this framed!!

Inside the lava tubes. The kids were so excited that Daddy packed their headlamps.

Goofy smile

Chilling on the patio.

Christmas in the Spring

Here are some pictures from Christmas. Which means I should be on track to have Easter pictures posted in the fall sometime. I have discovered I do not enjoy downloading pictures!!! That's the reason for the spotty blogging.

Abby LOVES her bed.
Such a good Daddy!! Tea time with Abby.
I could make a mural with all the pictures of at least 2 if not all 3 kiddos snuggled with Grammy in the lazy boy.
Not the best backdrop for a family picture, but it works
I had quite the fight with the boys on our christmas tree this year. I wanted a skinny and sparse tree, they didn't. I won, they didn't. It felt good!! The ornaments were made from squares of a quilt that my great-grandma Hannah Jacklin made. We all got a few squares of Hannah's quilt at the Family reunion last summer (thanks Reva Beth), and I thought ornaments would be perfect. I will love pulling them out every year.
I love their handwriting. I thought I kept the notes, but can't seem to find them. bummer

Chad spent a few cold evenings in the garage working on Christmas gifts for me. He fired up Mr. Heater and let the kids roast marshmallows and made them hot chocolate. Best daddy ever!!

Wearing our crowns from English Christmas Crackers. Spencer wasn't too happy to have his pictures taken with his on.

Abby put on her own headband and walked around with gloves on her feet all evening...so silly.

Making gingerbread houses...such a fun tradition. Grampy didn't get a bit of frosting on anything other than the house and I don't think Grammy got a bit of frosting on the house!!! So hilarious!

Projects, Projects, Projects

Just realized that I never posted this. Here are a few of last summer's projects. I really enjoyed sanding, painting, sanding and staining in the shade of the garage while the kiddos played outside. Now that spring is here, I am excited to come up with a few more
projects for the upcoming summer. Chad loved that other than moving the furniture he wasn't involved in another of my big ideas.

Mom gave us some of her old particle board furniture to play with. They need to be primed better next time, but I sand and rough them up anyway, so the occasional scratch blends in.

Our new piano/computer/sewing room. I absolutely LOVE it. Often in the evenings I am sewing, Chad is composing his music, the boys are on the computer and Abby is busy tearing apart the bookshelf. Fun family together time.

This room was under $50 to put together---had most of the furniture, all the paint, just had to buy a few containers and frames. Love doing things cheap!!!

Richele and I sanded and stained her kitchen table. Dad broke out the shiny white tile and placed the better looking stone tile. He's so good!!!

I asked Chad to throw away our old patio furniture a couple of years ago, but of course he didn't. This is one time I'm grateful for the pack-rat in him. My neighbor sands and paints furniture for flea markets in the summer. I love to walk across the street and purchase things "i must have" or get ideas for myself. It took a heck of a lot of sanding, but this was one of my favorites of the summer.

I painted the metal silver and painted them orange, yellow and purple. Then painted over it all with white and sanded much of the white off. LOVE IT!! For this summer I will find a fun rug and pillows to match the fun colors.

Got this idea from Pinterest. I love my fridge being free of pictures and papers, but I want the boys to display what they like. Just got some frames from the dollar store, painted them and added magnets to the back. I had more frames, but they went below the "destruction line" of Abby, so this will do for now.

Six year old little man!

Pencer-poo is SIX!! And he still allows me to call him Pencer-poo. I don't imagine that nickname will last much longer. He is still an interesting kid--doesn't allow many people to know him very well. I think Mom, Dad and Grammy are the only one who TRULY know him. And to know this kid is to love him. He still loves to snuggle with Mommy every chance he gets. Still won't give kisses to Daddy. Loves playing(and fighting) with Cameron and when Abby says his name it sounds like she is saying "princess"---and he doesn't get upset, even when Cam teases him about it. He has absolutely taken off in school, doing better than I ever imagined he would. I am so thrilled that he is loving learning.

Made his own VIP poster for school.

Telling his classmates about his poster.

Love that smile!!! He normally shies away from attention, but he was loving his birthday song.

Six year interview:
I am a: boy
I like to play with: Matthew
I am happy when I: play with toys
It makes me sad when: Cam teases me
I am scared of: ghosts
When I grow up I want to be: a policeman
Mom gets mad when I: don't clean up
Who loves me most: mom
I don't like to eat: salad

The last of the Folder

I should be pretty much caught up on blogging now. So here are the last of the pictures from my terribly unorganized photo folders.

When Spencer is "done" at the end of the night---he's "DONE"!!! Cam was practicing the piano and Spencer is afraid to go in the basement alone so he took a bit of a snoozer while waiting.
This is how I entertain the kids while waiting in line at the Brookside drive-thru. Spencer loves to try on my glasses. Abby is holding her princess book, that she LOVES.
Spencer got my camera while I was pumping gas. It's actually fun finding random pictures on the camera.

Richele's kids spent a couple of days at our house while Shell and Greg went to the BYU game in Texas. Her kids are amazingly well behaved and Caleb is a total crack-up (just don't tell him he has to say sorry when he hurts one of the other kids--the crying goes on and on and on).

We ate out and went to Lowes Extreme Airsports, the park, and had movie night. Busy kids don't find trouble as easy--so we were busy.

Abby and Caleb have sharing issues--weird for 2 year olds--haha. But they wanted to sit by each other for the movie. I think they got more popcorn on and in the couch than they got in their mouths.

Doing some reading while mommy cooks dinner. LOVE IT!

Enjoying warm October days. They are normally fully dressed when they play, but apparently they were feeling too manly to keep their shirts on. I'm shocked they posed for the pictures.

Cam is loving chess lately and Abby is a "big help" with everything, including game set-up.

I realized this is the morning after Cornbelly's--they are organizing their rocks and fossils and yes they are in the same clothes from the previous day.

Cornbelly's

Chad's work wanted to include the kids with the Team Building things we do every so often, so Cornbelly's was a great choice!! We've never gone, because it's a bit pricey, but totally worth the $. We will be going back for sure.

Got a bit chilly by the end of the night, but we fit in one more maze. We stayed until almost 9:30---way late for my kids.

Best "carnie" attraction EVER!! Speleo Cave. Google it. Coolest thing. I am very claustrophobic, so I enjoyed watching, but I had to get a picture of everybody that was in the "cave" at the same time. I was proud of Cam and Spencer for trying it.

The big bouncing pillows were fun and it was really warm when we first got there.

Spencer LOVES all kinds of weaponry---so the corn gun was heaven for him.

We spent a lot of time at the "panning for gold". They each got to sift through sand to find fossils and gems. They got a card to identify the gems and spent hours the next day sorting them.

Halloween Fun

October was great this year. Warm temps, so the kiddos could play outside. Parties and pumpkins, oh so much fun. While Grandma was visiting my beautiful new niece in Texas we had everybody else over for chili and pumpkin carving.

This was the first year both boys dug out their own pumpkin guts.

Grandpa used a Dremel to carve his. It scared Abby, so Scotty took advantage and enjoyed the snuggles.

Matching smiles.

Concentration.

Chad didn't want to do paper/rock/scissors on Halloween so Nat helped him get bloodied. And I kept on my devil horns that I wore to help with Spencer's class party. I don't think a class of Kindergartners would have understood "paper".

Cam designed and made his robot costume. Spencer loved his ninja swords and knives. And we have paper/rock/scissors. Paper wins!!

Decorating cupcakes--fun and yummy.