Leprechaun Trap

All third graders at Alis school got the assignment to make a "Leprechaun Trap" for St. Patricks day. They had to come up with a design and be able to tell how it would catch a leprechaun. Then the younger grades would come through and get to see their traps and how they work. I thought- what are they setting these kids up for!! Ali was pretty convinced her trap would work and she was finally going to catch a leprechaun! So i helped her with her design and sent her off to school to catch a leperchaun.
When she got home she was a little bummed that NO ONE caught a leprechaun and said the whole thing was a LONG story, but that she was sure she would get one that night at home.
Thank goodness that the Leprechaun did come, but we were only able to catch its boots and gold on the sticky paper she lined the bottom of the trap with!! Maybe next year!!

Shark Bob and Blue Moon

For Valentines day we decided that the kids really would love a pet. I am not quite ready to commit to a REAL pet so we decided on the lowest possible responsibility pet. FISH!!

We took Ali and Cam to pick out their VAlentines Gift and it was so fun. We didn't tell them what we were doing only that we had to go get their gifts. As we got closer to the pet store we gave them clues. And when we stopped in front they were so EXCITED! Cam picked out a yellow beta and Ali picked out a blue Beta. As we were checking out the lady asked Cam if the fish was his and he said, "Yes and his name is SHARK BOB!" So that was how it all started. We have Shark Bob and BLUE MOON. They have been a fun addition to the family and the kids can now say they have a pet!!

Amelia Earhart

this month ali had to choose a Biography to read. She thought about it for a little bit and decided on Amelia Earhart. We read books and watched the movie and it was so fun to learn more about her. Ali wanted to type her whole report, and i was so impressed. I don't think I typed a report till middle school. She has to dress up like her and talk about her in front of the class. She is so cute!!

She wanted to make a poster of pictures to show to the class and this was her finished product!!

Another Surgery Down

On Wednesday Fro underwent "hopefully" his last surgery on his wrist. He hasn't been to work since November and it is driving him crazy. Though he states he LOVES family time, he is such a workaholic that this has been such a huge challenge for him. I think he was just getting used to being back to work since his knee injury last year and then bam he is out for another 6+ months.
He is trying to have a good attitude since finding out that one of the screws that was put in his wrist is in the wrong place and has been damaging his wrist joint. So after consulting with a second doctor on his opinion he had a surgery to remove all the metal from the first surgery and start fresh. So he is metal free now and we are just waiting to see if he gets more feeling back and any more movement in his wrist. Keep your fingers crossed!! His doctor counseled him that he should probably start looking into other professions because he won't have the abilities in his wrist that he previously had and he will always have arthritis!! DANG BIKES!!!

All on her OWN

I have been trying and trying to get a feel for what Ali loves. I have signed her up for many things over the years and there is always something she doesn't like about it to keep her doing it. I have tried many different areas but come up with nada! She loves just being home and chillin'. Which is great, but I don't want her to get older and say "why didn't you make me do anything?" so when she finally got a little excited about violin i waited. I didn't want to just jump in and have yet another thing she didn't like after a week. Finally after asking for a few months I agreed.

I lucked out and got a teacher that one of my patients referred me to who teaches at UVU and is also with the tabernacle choir orchestra. She is great and ali really likes her. I have always deep inside wanted ali to like one or two of the things I love but I wanted her to always choose for herself, and I am so excited she is so excited about the violin also.

Finally after 3 years of asking

Since ali was 5 she has asked for a telescope for Christmas and birthdays. I kept thinking she was just going to grow out of it. But then again it hit the list, and another year later still there. I thought it was so funny because what 5 year old GIRL asks for a telescope. Well my 5 year old. I knew she was to little to really enjoy it but this year it moved from top 10 wants to TOP want. So I finally broke down and got her what she wanted.
There is nothing worse than getting a new toy or gadget for christmas and it won't work. Well that was the problem we were having. Fro took it out and couldn't see a thing. After a few days he finally tweeked a few things and changed out a few lenses and BOOM!!

What we saw was the clearest, most beautiful view of the moon. You could see all the craters and everything was in such fine detail. We were so excited and when it was Alis turn to look she said, " Wow mom there is neil armstrongs feet prints and the american flag!"
Pretty sure we had a good view but I didn't get the luck to see that!! She has enjoyed seeing the sky from a different perspective and even jupiter and 3 of it's moons. It is amazing to me how kids come so programmed with what they do and don't love. She has always found space fascinating.

Starting Young

A neighbor of mine took this picture of Cam in one of our sunday school lessons. He thought it was so adorable that he was studying his scriptures at such a young age. I loved it too and wanted to always remember it.

Ali is in a class which is now officially having scripture races so to speak and poor ali has only her little flimsy book of mormon. She came home after church and said, "Mom can I please get those nice scriptures with the tabs. My teachers had to help me find everything." I felt so bad picturing her being "that kid" that has no clue about where to find things in the scriptures. I immediately told her we would have to get her some of her own now that she was old enough to take care of them. So I took her a few days later to get he own scriptures with tabs. She picked out a quad that she liked and told me she would love to have her name in cursive on them. I thought that would be so perfect since she is learning cursive right now in school. They told us it would be an hour wait and to come back. So we went and bummed around and had some mom and ali time. Then we headed back to the store. She was so excited!! I loved seeing her get excited about her own scriptures. I asked the store clerk to get them for us and we waited. As he came back through the door alis face just lit up. She looked at me with the most excited expression ever and said, "there they are!!!" It was so great to realized that in all my efforts to relay my love for the church and the scriptures it has helped her to realize they are special and seeing that excitement was such a great moment for me as a mom!!

christmas 2011

 

I love Christmas so much, especially when NO one in our entire family is sick this year!! It makes it so great when everyone gets to be there. For Christmas Eve this year we had my parents over for our annual Christmas turkey dinner. It was DELICIOUS! We then had all my siblings come over to decorate sugar cookies i made so they could take them to santa. We then let all the kids exchange gifts and then it was the birthday cake story. Every year since i was a baby my mom reads this story called the birthday cake. It helps set the story for Jesus and the real reason for christmas. So everyone gathers around her on her chair and candle and listen so quietly. Well this year Cam was actually paying attention to the description in the story of the cake. As my mom read the description and the part that says it had raisins cam said,"EW GROSS!!" Everyone broke out laughing for a good few minutes because it was so funny and timed perftectly! I know it is going to be a memory we all will carry forever because it was so cute to see this three year old trying to listen so intently and realize it sounded so gross. it was hilarious!

Christmas Morning is my favorite part! I even made Fro and the kids do our family tradition train. As a kid I loved doing the train. We all wait on our pillows in our door way. My dad would come around with his train whistle and one by one pick up all our family members. He would make it so fun and I was so happy my kids and Fro participated this year just for me!!
When we got downstairs it truly was amazing. I love watching ali and cam get so excited! Their eyes went CRAZY!!
Our game this year was Shoot the Christmas Bingo. It was Bingo, but you had to shoot a dart at the clues to match to the bingo board. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it. Each person had a specific color of smiley face sticker on their present and Cams was green so all day he just kept saying, Mine were the green ones. He loved opening so many fun things!!
Ali has been wanting a Telescope for 3 years now. I kept thinking she would grow out of it, but it was put on the TOP of her list this year. So i hid it in the other room and left a note on one of the other presents to have her look in the office. I told her it was from her mom and dad because she is such a bright star to us everyday and she was SOOOOOO excited about it.
Cam had asked for a green or BOY dollhouse. He loves playing with alis stuff but wanted a boy version of things, so he got a big BATCAVE and a lot of Heroes to play with it like batman,and superman, and flash, and batgirl, and a bunch of others.
We were all spoiled and had such a great day. It was just fun getting to be together and play . We then had to drive up to fros sisters house in kaysville for lunch and play with the uncles and cousins. It was a fun day and we were all tired by the end of it!!

More Christmas time fun

 

At christmas going iceskating is a must for me. I have always loved going iceskating in december, it just makes it feel more festive to me for some reason. This year fro couldn't skate again and we didn't want to have to drag cam around the rink- that is no fun for anyone, so this year I got to take just Ali and my neice madison. We had a great time and they skated non-stop, except for the zamboni, for over 2 1/2 hours. My legs were pretty tired and they didn't want to stop, but it was tons of fun, and really special that it was just me and the girls!
We also took the kids to South towne mall to see santa. My sister Brittany and her kids came and they each took thier turn to tell santa what they wanted. Ali wanted a telescope and Cam wanted a boy dollhouse (batcave), and heros to go with it. We then went to Cafe Rio and b98.7 was there and i won a family 4 pack to the aquarium and to Planet Play. It turned out pretty good for us, and gave us even more things to do with our time off!!

Browns Talent show 2011

 

What my sister Brittany wants, my sister Brittany gets and in all our glory~~ Brittany came up with doing a christmas talent show last year and we thought that was good, but NO she came back again and said she wanted everyone to perform a talent this year also- since it was on her birthday!! So since we all love britto we all tried to come up with a talent. My family decided to do a family dance to LMFAO party anthem and it was pretty dang awesome. My sister Brooke and her two girls did the three amigos my little buttercup dance, Noah and steve amazed us with their jump rope talents, Kate and maddie did a penguin dance, My mom played the harmonica, and my dad played the piano upside down, and to top the night my sister britt pulled our our old school keyboard from when we were little and played a "demo" song we all grew up pretending we knew how to play and it was Hilarious. It brought back so many memories, and her doing it again with a wig made so many more. It was a funny night and so fun to share with my family. We had our annual white elephant auction and among the greatest gifts were gifts fro and I stole from my sisters houses and wrap up and gave away. it was priceless watching thier faces realize the gifts being given were their things they had no idea were missing!! It was a lot of fun- lots of chia pets, roosters, and cut up credit cards thanks to the year of Dave Ramsey revisions!!

Christmas Activities

 

Even though my husband is not working and that sucks for everyone, it has been pretty fun to see more of him and get to do some fun things while ali is out of school. Every winter for the past 4 years we have had someone injured or a new baby or some reason we couldn't go to temple square. Despite Fros arms being broken i decided it was no excuse to miss it and we needed to go. I was glad we did!! The weather was great and we went at about 5ish before it got crazy busy! we got a parking spot right outside the temple and that made our whole night!! that doesn't happen often! We showed the kids the lights, and went to the top of the JSM building and looked out and had dinner- it was a lot of fun.
My sisters neighbor makes the best toffee and i was wanting to learn how to make it so my sister in law camille came over and between the two of us, we made some pretty good toffee. I learned some tricks to make the next batch even better, but it was fun to finally get that under my belt! We had a night to make gingerbread houses, and my sister brittanys birthday, and the time off was just getting started!

Phinney 2011

 

Every December 1 we get our first visit from Phinney our Christmas Elf. He comes to watch over all of us to make sure we are being on our best behavior. My kids look forward to Phinney coming all year long. It is so fun to watch thier excitment as he moves through the house at different times of the day to keep an eye on them. They behave so much better and they love asking him questions and getting answers from him. This year as a special gift he brought both of them remote control cars. They have played with them everyday!! I love Christmas and the magic of it all!!

My kids

I feel like I have not updated on my kids lately- so this is my update....
Ali- She is my little 8 year old blessing from heaven. She has just enough sass, and just enough sweet. she is always trying to help and wants to do what is right. She loves music, books and MOVIES.she loves writing stories and making pictures to go with them. If she had a day to do whatever she wanted it would be at home playing a "craft" with mom and watching movies as a family. she loves being home and just having her time. I am not crafty and she is so patient with me to be creative. I love her so much!! I constantly take in all of her hugs and hope that there will NEVER be a day she doesn't give them to me. She is very picky about who she tells she loves and gives hugs to, and it makes me smile bigger when she gives them endlessly to me. She wants to play the violin, which is the first thing she has shown any interest in doing and I am really excited to see how that goes. She has a funny personality and loves telling jokes. But out in the world she is so reserved and a little on the shy side and i love knowing i get to see all of her all the time!! She is a great student and tries so hard at school. She still loves riding bikes and we are bummed the weather is a little to cold to do that everyday. She constantly changes her room around and everyday i go in there something new is out or some stuffed animal has made their way from the basement to have a luxury bed in her room. She is funny and crazy and loves dancing in the family room with me for ever!! I am so proud of the little girl she is and am so grateful for her example to me.

Cam- he is my crazy, full of energy, sass, spunk, and character. He is the never ending facial expression that makes me laugh. The squeeze around the neck right when you need it guy. He is always on the move, but if there is a movie on- bam he is all in. he loves playing. Playing cars, balls, trains, anything! He loves turning on music and dancing his dance moves to it. He loves being outside, and loves riding his big bike! He is in a constant phase of holding his weiner and it is driving me crazy. I hope he grows out of that phase soon!! He says funny phrases like - watch and learn mom, or are you kidding me, or what the..... He is constantly suprising me. We were watching tv and a commercial for a victoria secret tote came on and the girl was dressed but flaunting the bag and when it ended he looked at me and said, "I like that girl!!" YES he is 3!! I am nervous about that!! He loves making us laugh and loves being with his family. He follows me around that i knock him down daily because he is standing right behind me all the time. I love that he crawls on top of me just to get closer. I often feel guilty that he isn't in preschool because he wants to go to preschool so bad. He loves other kids and wants to play any chance he can get. He loves playing with his cousins christian and Jamison and loves when Ali gets to stay home from school. They are best buddies!!- He is such a great blessing to me and makes this family even more fun!!

"live like no one else so you can live like no one else"

Okay I am going to be a hypocrite for a minute!! Last year my little sister was on a HUGE Dave Ramsey kick. They had a strict budget and we all got really tired of hearing "it's not in our budget!" Well after they overcame a huge amount of debt in 18 months we realized that if we save as well as they budgeted we could really get ahead. So as a family we all started watching the Dave Ramsey teaching videos. I wasn't super thrilled at first but it really has helped to focus on down the road where you want to be and being in control of your money. Two areas i don't really focus on. After doing our budget,which by the way was really fun with fro not working, We decided to make several changes. Fro continued to push selling the truck to have 2 paid for cars. He really pushed being debt free. I kept dragging my heals because lets face it, I LOVE MY TACOMA! I have always loved it and being an '04 with 53 K miles I was pretty proud of it!! I kept hoping he would grow out of this debt free faze and we would keep it. But realizing that "IF we live like no one else, later we will live like no one else" - dave Ramsey- I realized not only will it help us save now and get ahead and be debt free but it is also what the prophets have been encouraging us to do. So i said good bye to my wonderful, beautiful, freakin awesome truck and said Hello to our first step to being 100% debt free!! Next goal-- the House!!

Yep It's November and we have another ACCIDENT

Ali made this poster for Fro for when he got home from having surgery on his arms. He broke both of his arms biking last week at the bike park. He went up on a metal ledge and his bike slid out from under him and he landed on his arms. He ended up being in surgery for 4 hours and they put a plate and screws in his left arm. His right arm had two fractures that they thought would need surgery but ended up just needing to be casted. It is really difficult to do anything with NO arms!!

He has been very sleepy the last week and hopefully it will start improving for him- he is miserable. He said that this totally is worse than his ACL surgery last year. That at least allowed him to do things for himself he just couldn't walk. This has made him very dependent on us for everything. He had his temporary casts taken off and know that he can move his elbows it has helped alot, but still is not fun!! He is out of work for at least 2 months. His boss said "You just got back to work and now your out again!" That is sometimes how life works and you just have to roll with it. We can't believe it happened at the same time of year. I told him there are better ways to get the holidays off!!!

Tron Family

 

I have not always been a big Halloween fan, but several years ago I realized you can make it fun. Every year Ali usually decides what she wants to be and we do a theme around that. I have never been a "theme" kind of person but it does make it a little more fun and creative. Well this year Cam was pretty set on being Sam Flynn from Tron. I kept thinking he might change his mind, but NOPE. So TRon it was!! I am not crafty in any way so i looked online to find some tron costumes. yeah not cheap and none existant for a little girl. So I let my creative juices work and decided to do a little experimenting with Duct Tape. Love the stuff and the variety of colors. We had a fun Halloween being Tron and Ali loved no one else in her school had her costume!!

Moab with the Derricks!

 

Last Year we decided that we don't spend enough time with Fros side of the family. We wanted to do fun things with them since we try to do yearly trips with mine. Last year we went to St. George and had a lot of fun so we decided to do another trip this year. Moab was decided and I am glad we chose moab. There really is A LOT to do in Moab. There are NO stores or restraunts, but tons of fun activities.

My favorite thing of the whole trip was watching Ali ride the same trails as all the adults. I was SO proud of her. She peddaled over everything and tried everything. I was worried she would panic and get off and walk, but NOPE!! She showed us all up. It was so much fun for me to ride right with her. I loved every minute of it. It was also fun for fro to ride with his brothers. He rides a lot with us, but not usually with them.

We stayed in little cabins at a campground and it had a pool and was warm so in the October chilling mornings we were perfect. We went to delicate arch, bowtie arch, went jeepin' at least Cam and Ali did. We hiked to dinosaur ruins, we swam, we went to Music park. This way awesome park that has all kinds of wind chimes and musical things for kids to play. We went to the sand hill where YES I broke another camera. It just goes to show I can't go on vacation without braking one. Good thing I had a back up!!

It was fun for everyone and I was glad almost the whole family was there. And we will see where next year takes us.

FALL--I love it!!

 

I don't remeber how much I LOVE fall until it is here each year. THis year we were taking Fro up biking in Provo Canyon and I requested a family picture because I couldn't get over how awesome it was!! So gorgeous!! I love spring and fall and I am really glad we got a little bit of fall this year especially since Spring got skipped!! I also love that my son has pictures everywhere we go PEEING!! You have to admire his height and flow!!

My Drama!!

My cute neighbor helps me watch my kids when I am at work and the other day they all experienced one of the most "dramatic" days ever!!
Ali was scheduled to get out early from school and was headed home to my neighbors house when there was NO answer at my neighbors house. She had gone upstairs to change her clothes and didn't hear Ali knock. So Ali having to go the bathroom so badly ran to our house. After trying to get in through the garage she finally made it inside. But as she ran to the bathroom she ended up peeing everywhere. She was of course tramatized. She didn't know what to do and she was so scared, sad, etc.

As she was sitting there wondering what to do, she decided the best thing to do was say a prayer. She said a little prayer that she wouldn't be scared and she would know what to do. As she finished her prayer she said that all of a sudden she remembered her dads cell number. She called him and all he could hear was crying, and crying, and crying. He found out what was wrong and then told her he would find our neighbor or someone to help her.
I am so grateful for great neighbors!!! He got a hold of one of the other neighbors who immediately went to our house and got her. As they were walking home my other neighbor saw Ali walking by and told her she was home. She hates when you tell her the plan and then it doesn't work out exactly the way you told her, so my neighbor felt so horrible.

then to top off the drama from that my neighbor was trying to help Cam get to the bathroom (same day) and when Cam has to go really bad sometimes he will start crying he has to go so bad so she was trying to help but as you try to help it ends up that he sprays EVERYWHERE. He can't focus to keep his little Weiner down and Pee ends up everywhere. So cam ended up peeing on my nieghbor and Ali and it was just the way you want the day to go!! DRAMA DRAMA DRAMA!! I can't believe she will still watch my kids, but I guess it is because she loves me!! Thanks Marcy

Airbourne

 

We had never been to airbourne in Draper but a lot of people told us how much fun it is so I finally broke down and took the kids.Of course i made my sisters come to expereince over 75 trampolines and fun foam pits with me. The kids LOVED it!! I had to closely follow cam because he wasn't satisfied with the "kid zone". He wanted to play in the BIG kid zone. I was terrified that someone was going to bounce him and launch him. He didn't even seem to be phased by all the other big kids bouncing around him he was loving it. They had a bigger foam pit you could do tricks into and after he watched some of the bigger kids jump into it backwards he was determined to do it also. He ran to the edge and with a crowd of kids watching turned around and fell backwards into the pit. The only problem was he wasn't close enough to the edge and as he fell his but hit the edge of the pit and it tossed him backwards. His poor bum!! I had to of course dive in after him because he was then stuck upside down in the pit and couldn't see anything. I was trying to scramble out with him in my arms gracefully and realized no one can gracefully get out of those pits. Once out he was determined to try again. One of the bigger boys said, "Do you know there is a kids area for his age." My reply was "yeah but in his mind he has already mastered that and wants more!!" That is Cam and he is one of the most fearless little guys ever.

Ali had a great time also other than needing her inhaler every so often. She was having so much fun bouncing every where with her cousins. They would get so excited when one of them would do something so daring and brave. I loved watching them all have a great time. The best part for me was watching my two sisters be constantly concerned that someone was going to break something. I am super suprised there were no major injuries, but glad they all had fun and want to go again soon!!