Winter Snow!!!

Brenner has missed the snow sooo much!!! I would be more than happy to take him somewhere to play in the snow... but it just hasn't snowed anywhere close enough at any convenient time. A few weekends ago, we had to go to Kanarraville. Sadly, my uncle passed away and we had to go try to find paperwork and clean the house, etc. I texted my cousin Cash and he said there was no snow... but I packed our snow gear, just in case. The kids were bored. They had no computer, no TV, not toys and it was cold and windy outside. Brenner was thinking it was the worst day of his life. So, we left him at Cash's with his girlfriend Kali and she put a movie in for them to watch. We went back to clean the house. All of a sudden, the wind stopped and it started to snow. The boys were soooo excited. They got right to work building a snowman. They had a blast and it turned out to be the best day of Brenner's life!!!

The memorial service was this past saturday. I don't have any pics, but I think my cousin libby does. There is the obituary and a video memorial on our family blog.

My uncle was living in my grandparent's old house which now belongs to my mom and my uncle Heff. So, now we have a house to clean, paint and fix up and hopefully we will have a fun vacation home to run off to in Kanarraville!!!

Happy 37 to me!!!

All I have to say is... holy crap... I'm almost 40! How did that happen? Anyway....

My birthday was somewhat blasé.... I had to work...Ryan had a class that night so he was gone all night. I didn't feel like cooking so I took the kids to McDonald's. Ryan couldn't handle that I didn't have a cake with candles to blow out (I guess I could have made myself one) so he stopped at the store and bought me one. I blew out the candles and we all went to bed... no one even ate the cake.

Okay, so since that day turned out just about as normal as they get (aside from my mom's brother dying), we decided to celebrate the day after. Ryan bought me an Iphone for my birthday!!! Most exciting gift of all time... I've wanted one forever:) Then Ry's parents baby sat so we could go to the temple and out to dinner. We went to a Brazilian stake house. It was super fun and ended up being a great... day after my birthday!!!

(I've been accused of being behind on my blogging... but there hasn't been anything to blog about... we need to get out and do something fun!!!)

Joren's 6th Birthday

I thought I was going to get out of having a birthday party for Joren. We needed to go to Las Vegas to take Tanner to the airport to fly home on the morning after Joren's birthday. So, I thought we could just go down a day early and go to Circus Circus for Joren's birthday. Well, Joren was excited about that, but when it really settled in that he wasn't going to be able to have a friend party, he was a little sad. Being the mother that I am and not wanting to feel guilty that I didn't have a party for him, I decided to plan a NINJA party about a week before his birthday!!!

We invited a few close friends and their siblings. We asked everyone to come dressed in all black. I made ninja headbands for them to wear.

We started off by having a ninja star throwing contest. The little ninjas had to throw the stars into 3 different bowls..... the farthest away being the most points.

Then we had a relay where they had to carry marshmellows with chopsticks from one bowl to another.... kind of harder than I thought.
Then we went inside to have cake and ice cream. I made Joren's cake. I just covered it in white fondant and made a black ninja belt out of fondant. Then I just stuck some plastic Ninja toys in the cake... super easy and he loved it!

After the cake we went back outside to break the pinata. My pinata wasn't super durable, so we had them hit it with a ninja sword so that it wouldn't break right off the bat. (When planning a party where you make a pinata, plan plenty of days to do multiple layers... and don't try to bake it to make it dry faster.)
After the pinata, we went back inside to open presents. Joren was a little too nonchalant about his presents, but he had a lot of fun!!!
We had his party the day before his birthday and the day of his birthday, we headed to Las Vegas. We stayed at the Circus Circus hotel and went to the adventuredome. The kids loved going on the rides and playing the games at the midway.
Happy Birthday Joren. Hope it was a blast!!!

(Now I need to get out and take some cute 6 year old pics of him)

Hiking the cinder cone

It has been such nice weather lately... So today I was thinking I needed to get the kids outside and enjoy the weather... We have been wanting to hike the cinder cone by diamond valley.... I did not realize it was windy until we were driving out of the garage.  We hiked it any way.  The trail is a bit slippery, but fairly easy and fun. We almost got blown off the top! We will have to go back when it's not windy.

The Christmas Break

We had such a nice Christmas Break...
It was such nice weather... the kids enjoyed playing outside with their new toys. Joren got a bike ramp and Terek got a new bike.

We had a free 3-day pass to the Washington Rec Center. We got to go swimming...
... and the big boys climbed the rock wall.
Brenner made it all the way to the top!!!

For New Year's Eve, we had a party with the Williams Family. Brenner entertained us with a Magic Show.
The boys ran around like crazies all night.

This is the group that was crazy enough to stay up until Midnight!!! We are excited for what 2012 has in store for us!!!