Brooke Basketball

I feel like I have fallen very far behind, but I also know I need to do a shout out to Brooke!! This is the first year she has been able to play basketball and she was so excited. She had a great coach that was more worried about teaching the fundamentals, which meant they didn't win very many games, but she learned a lot of good skills. She made a basket in every game. In the 1st game she made a basket for the other team, but I still count that as a basket. She loved every minute of playing and is always begging me to go out and play with her. I was trying to teach her the hand in the cookie jar routine the other night and she didn't like it, but I think with time she will catch on!! Here are some pictures.

Arrow of Light

Ben has been loving scouts and especially getting all the pins and awards. Well in January he got his final award in cub scouts, he got his arrow of light. He was quite proud of himself and all the work he has put into getting finished with the first part of the program. Right now we are on a little break until he turns 11 and can go to boy scouts, but he has been looking through the book and is excited to see that a lot of the requirements can be done while camping and we all know how much he loves to camp!! I guess our new adventure begins as we start working our way to earning an eagle!!

The theme of the night was Knights of the Round Table. Here he is in his hat.

Pinning on the mothers pin.

Ben!!

Playing knight games

Such great form

Brooke was undefeated!!

She had way too much fun.

New Years Eve and New Years Day

As usual we stayed home for the evening playing games and enjoying some time as a family. We started by playing a few games of Super Mario Bros. on the Wii, then we moved upstairs to some board games, we played Clue, Blurt and Rummikub, which I might add I won every game we played!!

Playing the Wii

More Wii, doesn't Brooke look thrilled??

Now she's getting into it.

A friendly game of Blurt, we need to play this game more often.

For New Years Day I decided we needed to get out of the house, we have been cooped up for almost 2 weeks with people being sick and we really need some fresh air, so I found a couple of caches for us to go find, it was so fun to just get out of the house and back into the outdoors!! The kids weren't too thrilled to go, but as you can tell from their faces they enjoyed getting out too.

1st Cache of the year

Getting the caches sometimes means we have to use little fingers.

Enjoying the sun

Funny faces

It wasn't sunny here, it was foggy and a lot colder and it was only about 5 miles from where we had been.

Searching for a cache.

Christmas 2013

Well I can honestly say that I will be all caught up with my blog posts from the year after I finish writing this one!! I think that will be one of my goals for next year to be more dedicated to updating my blog more regularly. Christmas this year was wonderful, we were able to spend time with family members and some time just as our own family. I love this time of year and the chance we have to celebrate the birth of our Savior and to be able to serve others. This year on Christmas Eve we had the chance to serve someone in need and as hard as it was for us to finish some of our family traditions without Jaime, it was good for the kids to see his willingness to serve at all times. What a wonderful person he is.
The kids were happy with their gifts and the day was nice and relaxing. Here are some pictures to show their excitement and joy!!

Family picture on Christmas Eve.

They both found their big gift at the same time!!

Santa hid her gift in a pair of jeans, she was pretty worried that all she was getting was chapstick and jeans!

Brooke and her DSi.

Ben and his tablet.

The girls and their electronics. This is how they have spent a lot of time this last week, luckily school we be starting in another week and the toys will be given some well deserved down-time!!

We hope you and your family had a very Merry Christmas and remember that Christ is the reason for the season.

Christmas Program

Every year the elementary school has a Christmas program that the kids put on for their parents. Well this year they held it on the evening of the last day of school before Christmas break and I think that was a great time to do it. It was also a new experience for us this year also, we only have 1 kid in elementary, so instead of trying to watch for 2 kids all the time we only had to worry about watching Brooke and it was fun to watch Ben support his sister by actually sitting and watching her. She was pretty fun to watch, while her group was sitting waiting for their turn to sing she was swaying back and forth to the singing of the other kids. Then when it was her turn to sing with everyone she was pretty energetic about singing and had a great time performing.
I didn't get very good pictures, but here are my favorites.

Gingerbread houses 2013

We have started a tradition in our home where we take an evening and the kids all build a gingerbread house. We don't use the traditional gingerbread to make them, we use graham crackers and I make the frosting for decorating. The kids always look forward to doing this and it is fun to watch them use their own ideas to make what they want to make. So without any more explaining, here are the pictures of the kids making their houses. Brooke's was a shop just so you know and Ben and Kylee both did their own little houses. I think their favorite part is eating all the candy after their houses are built!! Such a fun family night!!

Fall 2013

I feel like I have been a real slacker, but I am amazed at how busy life is when you have 2 kids in middle school and still another in elementary. Sometimes I get jealous of people whose kids have all moved out and they aren't busy running so many different directions, but then I think of how much I love watching my kids participate in all their different activities. So just to catch everyone up, after soccer and volleyball, Kylee went straight into basketball (which just happens to be my favorite sport) this year however was a little different than last year, she didn't make the A team so she was truly upset and a little heartbroken, but she loved the B team. She had an amazing coach and was able to be on the same team as some of her best friends, they had practice at 6:30 AM. The worst part about early practice was getting her out of bed, but she said she loved having practice early because she had more energy and it gave her more time after school to relax. She had a great year, was the starting point guard and even beat my high score in a single game. She did end up with a concussion after a game against Payette, well we aren't positive that it was a concussion because we didn't take her in, but we are pretty sure. And her team went undefeated which everyone was very happy about. We love watching her play and can't wait to see what next year brings.

Shooting a free throw

Bringing it up the court.

Somewhere in this year we had Halloween, we didn't do anything grand, we just went to the trunk-or-treat and then visited some family members. The kids all came up with their own costumes this year, I'm just not that great at the whole dressing everyone up thing!!

Ben was a soccer player, Brooke was a vampire and I'm not sure what Kylee actually was.

Thanksgiving was a blast, our family from Utah came up and we spent lots of time shopping and just sitting around visiting. This year instead of just frying up our fish for the fish fry we tried deep frying some and lets just say it was a big hit. I'm excited to get back out and do some more fishing.

The older kids all got matching shirts, so these guys did one better and got shirts and hat!!
Kylee, Koby and Ben with Travis in the background.

I love how electronics take over the house!! They all had fun playing on their toys!!

Oh and last week I started a new job, I still work at the same place it is just a new position and right now I LOVE it. I have not been stressed at work and have had a lot more energy when I come home and the best part is I'm happier!! I know that Kylee doesn't like my job right now because I have to be in one of her classes, but next year I won't even be in the same building as her so she can live for one more semester!!
Well that is the run down of what we have been up to, hopefully I will be able to be better at staying updated throughout the winter months, but I can't make any promises because Brooke will be starting basketball in January!!