Thru the Month - Feb 2015

Random event and pictures from February:

Had a fun time at Pack Meeting/Scout Banquet

There was a marshmallow war...

I love this picture even though it's blurry. So cute!

The Vaqueras have a Preview night for the community to see what all their hard work has been for, then they head off to State Drill Team in Richfield

Hannah-2nd from left, kneeling

I helped decorate their bus...Hannah is kneeling in the aisle

We watched the competition on the Internet...love that they stream it live!

Sadie is starting to look very grown up....and she likes the Photo Booth app on the Mac ;)

The kitchen cabinet painting project continues...

More Lego creating going on

Some target practice....

Charles and Soren and some BB guns

Made and decorated valentine cookies-LOVE these cute blonde boys!

Montana gets some love at BYU-I

We got more snow to reblanket the ground...Love how the sun is only shining on the mountain with a soft rosy light....

History Fair.
yay. Not.
This year it's Sadie's turn. 

In an effort to keep caught up on the boy's homework, I try to have a special homework time right after school with snacks. Homework, by Feb, is old and no one wants to do it anymore.

Even James gets out his workbooks to do homework with the other boys.

They look enthralled with whatever Soren is reading to them, don't they?

Soren has fun at scouts. I think they learned about plants and then they got to paint a tractor...love how his is a Ninjago tractor!

James helps me make his birthday cake. He has always liked to 'make'. 

(probably so he can lick the beaters)

Here he is enjoying his creation...and he's 4!!

My baby is 4!

Every year starting in January with Soren's birthday we enter one of our "birthday seasons" where we have a couple or more birthdays within a few days of each other. We have two boys with birthdays in

February, the oldest (Jordan turned 26) and the youngest, James. This year James was hitting the big 4! It hardly seemed possible that my baby could be turning 4. Very soon we will hit the point where it will have been the longest time in my married life that I have not been pregnant or holding a new baby. I have been counting forward to that point and it's nearly here. Yikes, it makes me feel old. 

Anyway, James helped make his own cake since he really likes to cook with me. (And lick the beaters!)

Another low-key family birthday celebration. We lit candles, sang, and he blew them out. Then he got to open his gifts and then the eating(wasting) of cake began. I don't know why my kids like to take huge pieces of cake, take two bites, then throw the rest away, but that's how it almost always plays out. Oh, well. 

This year James got a super hero cape and mask, some transformer type toys and a new cool retro/vintage lunchbox with cowboys on it, also lots of money that he promptly spent on new Legos, Legos are the toys of choice around here and are well worth the cost. They entertain my little guys for hours and days on end, 

Happy Birthday James!! We are so blessed to have you in our family. You keep us hopping and add lots of excitement to our lives. Hopefully your dad and I will survive your growing up years. Whew!!

Thru the Month - January 2015

Random events and photos from January:

Charles loses his first tooth

Soren turns 9 

and has his first ever birthday party!

Hannah is very busy with cheering for both basketball and wrestling as well as getting ready for Region and State Drill Team Competitions

Hannah- 3rd from left

The sky continues to be beautiful whether it's sunrise or sunset

The long-discussed project begins....the painting of the kitchen cabinets

from brown to....

GRAY!

Charlie gets to celebrate 100 days of school! (cool hat!)

Lots of creating with Legos, of course. Watch out for the sharks that might be left lying on the floors!

Soren's 1st Ever, Super-duper, Spider-Man Birthday party

I was feeling quite bad about never throwing a birthday party for Soren. As his 9th birthday approached I decided there would be no more excuses. So we bit the bullet and gave out invitations and made plans. I remembered that we had gotten a Spider-Man birthday in a box from somewhere, so this seemed like a great time to make use of it. It had invitations, banner, streamers, plates, napkins, cups, goodie bags, decorations, and goodies for the bags. The only thing I had to purchase was the treats and make cupcakes.  I had more fun than I thought I would have trying to color coordinate things and set it up all fancy like. I'm sure all the 8 and 9 year olds at the party really appreciated my efforts. Haha!!

Only one of the invitees couldn't be there so we had a pretty full house of rowdy boys. We played a superhero race game where there were two teams and each team sent a person who had to put on the oversized clothing and proceed to stuff it with balloons to simulate superhero muscles, then they had to unstuff and run tag the next guy on their team til everyone had a turn. It was pretty humorous! Then they played pin/beat-the-villain game. Next was a quieter activity of a Lego building contest. I needed that respite. 

We then ate cake, donuts,  popcorn, licorice, cherry sours and drank blue Koolaid. After their sugar refill, Soren opened his gifts and they all played until it was time for them to be picked up. Whew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was a fast and furious 2 hours and I was exhausted when it was over. But Soren was happy and had a great time with his friends, so I'm glad I made the effort to celebrate his birthday with a party for him this year.

The goodie table

he voted for cupcakes and donuts this year

the party table

funny game! some of the kids were absolutely swamped in Curtis's clothes...

build those muscles!

lots of laughing in this game

pin the superhero….

way to help a friend out!

Lego building competition

sure kept them quiet for a few minutes

let the eating commence

then came the gift opening and Heavy, Heavy, Hang Over

It was a good 1st birthday party

A traumatic loss...

January started out with a bang for Charles. He has had a wiggly tooth for a while now and was excited at the thought of getting some moula when it finally came out.
A few days ago he was downstairs playing Legos and I head him crying. Turns out he had been using his teeth (big no-no) to separate some Legos and it was just too much for the tooth. It shot out of his mouth and disappeared. I'm still not exactly sure what he was crying about. Maybe he thought he was in trouble for using his teeth on Legos. Maybe it was the blood. Maybe it was the thought of not getting any money since the tooth could not be found.
After some reassurance that he was NOT in trouble, and that he was NOT going to bleed to death, he happily went on his way.
The tooth turned up as well, thanks to the detective skills of Sadie. All was well in Charlie's world!

Kind of sad to see those cute little teeth go….

His last single digit birthday!

Today was Soren's last single digit birthday. How did that happen? Argh, I'm getting old.
We had a low-key birth day for him since he is having his first ever birthday party on the weekend.
We gave him some gifts:

• slippers from family
• $$ from grandparents!

We didn't even have cake on his actual birthday because he wanted it for his party. Works for me!

Soren, you have grown from an adorable baby with bright icy blue eyes and tons of blonde hair, to an awesome young man. We love watching you learn and grow and develop new skills. We anticipate many fun times ahead with you and are thankful to be your parents! Love you, bud!

Oh, the suspense…..

getting closer….