wolf man

Carter earned his Wolf badge tonight! Yay for him! He has been looking forward to this all month and we are so proud of him. He loves cub scouts...he watches the calendar and makes sure he never misses a den meeting. Good thing cause I've forgotten more than once!

I have been over cub scouts for the last 2 1/2 years, so this was my first pack meeting where I wasn't running around helping out...it was a little strange for me. I felt guilty sitting around and chatting instead of helping run the games, pass out treats...all the usual stuff. Never thought I'd be sad turning scouts over to someone else, but I was. Although, I am not too sad to be letting someone else plan the blue and gold banquet...ever tried to feed 150 people on $200? It is not easy!

taking a break from reality

Tim is on an accredidation team for his district. He needed to spend a couple of days at a Jr. High in Park City, so we all tagged along....free hotel and swimming pool...what else do you need? After a long, snowy drive up Provo Canyon, we made it to our hotel. The kids were bed jumping (luckily no injuries!) and enjoying 24 hour Disney channel until very late. We finally gave in and went to bed with them around 11:00 p.m.
Maddy zoning like usual....if the tv is on, she can't help but stare!

Jace eating his before-bed-granola bar....every single night! Tim left early in the morning to work. I slept in...sort of....the kids were all awake from 6:30 a.m. on...so I more or less tried to ignore the noise. By 8:30 they were all begging to get down to the pool. I finally gave in at 9:30....we had to pass by the lobby....got a few strange looks toting 5 kids in nothing but swimsuits, especially considering the major snowstorm outside. Everyone else in the lobby was in down parkas. At least they weren't fighting over pushing the elevator button (they saved that for coming back from the pool).

We spent a long time at the pool...I had to drag them away after about 3 hours. The rest the trip was spent hitting the outlets (finished almost all my back to school shopping!), reading "Farworld" (very fun new book...along the lines of Fablehaven or Harry Potter), and watching a little ABC family (my kids weren't so impressed with the old episodes of "Full House" which I remember loving as a kid...I admit, they were super cheesy!) We finished the drive home with lunch at the Dairy Keen in Heber...yum!

We came home to all kinds of messages, YW in Excellence program, visiting teaching appts, new callings for me (I was released from the Primary Presidency 2 weeks ago and I'm experiencing some post-primary blues), pack meeting, homework...you know the drill. The break was short but so needed!

hole no more

Yay for me!! Kenzie's accident has finally been covered up...thanks Tim! It changed the whole look of the room...and even though I didn't plan it (REALLY), it worked out perfectly!

eternal connections

Yesterday we took the family to the open house at the new temple in Draper. The Jorgensen family joined us, and we all had quite the day. The little girls had to speculate on the possible marriage of Kenzie and Zack (we were in the temple after all!) Our soon to be teens turned several shades of red while trying to ignore their siblings. When we were in the sealing room, we sat down and a sweet couple shared their feelings on eternal families. They quoted from Elder Holland (I think!) saying "Heaven would not be heaven to us without our family there to share it". Just what I was feeling! After the tour, we made a stop at Chuck-a-Rama for lunch. All you can eat....that was heaven for the kids. On the way home we asked each of the kids to tell us about their favorite place in the temple.

• Kenzie- the bride's room and the celestial room..."they were so peaceful"
• Maddy- the celestial room..."I have never felt the Spirit so strong"
• Carter- the celestial room..."it reminds people of the celestial kingdom and it's a great place to think"
• Lady- the celestial room... "the room with the big sparkly, pretty lights"
• Jace-the baptismal font..."the water room was cool!"

We had the older kids write in their journals about what they saw and felt in the temple. What an awesome way to spend our day!

The temple was so busy, there was never a good time for a picture...so I took these while the kids were waiting on parents to bring their food...they food was good, but not good enough to deserve a picture!

...leave it to Tim...

Kenzie came home from school last week with an assignment to build a pyramid. Her only guidelines were that it had to fit on a 2x2 piece of cardboard, and it had to be something that wouldn't fall apart when moved. I suggested the usual....sugar cubes, paper mache...nothing exciting. Kenzie was less than impressed with my ideas. She enlisted Tim's help as soon as he walked in the door. He suggested a glass pyramid, complete with water and a fish. I laughed and said "yea...good luck with that." After a couple of trips to the local Jones Paint and Glass, he had his triangular glass and silicone ready to go. Who knew? We did scale it back a little and filled it with sand, the Nile river, and a toothpick replica of an Egyptian boat. Kenzie couldn't have been prouder to take this to school yesterday... "everyone says mine is the most awesome ever!" Leave it to Tim to pull off what I thought was just another crazy idea!

...snow days...

We finally took the kids sledding this week....the park is about a 30 second drive from our house....so I'm feeling a little bit lame for waiting so long to go. The kids were thrilled, especially Miss Laityn. She is still talking about the "train" they made out of sleds.

Sweet big sister.

Lady's face is awesome! She could have done this all day long!

Tim thought it would be a good idea to send Jace down the hill alone....wow, he was so wrong. This is the face he was sporting once the sled stopped. Poor boy!

Carter crashed and burned on the jump....at least there were no injuries.

I take that back....Tim's back is still giving him grief (more than normal) thanks to this little run!

Maddy stayed clear of all jumps....she hasn't forgotten last year's landing after soaring off one of the jumps.

Helpin' dad get movin' down the hill...everyone wanted in on that. Such a fun day! We finished it off with hot chocolate and lots of marshmallows. I'm thinking since we got our sledding action done, I wouldn't mind one bit if it all just melted away!

...I wonder what would happen if....

Ever wonder what it looks like when your sixth grader falls down the stairs?

Kenzie is sporting a nice bruise on her backside after this little incident. I still haven't figured out how she ended up backwards and through the wall....Pretty sure this will take more than a little spackle and paint. And just when I thought I was going to attempt to catch up my scrapbooks...We decided instead of patching the wall, we're going to put up bead board around the bottom half of the room. Not exactly what we had planned for January....typical, typical, typical.

...celebrate the times....

We celebrated New Year's with the Jorgensen family. Tim and John have been friends since they were in high school. Kenzie and Zach were born a week apart, and now we have 9 kids between us all. We introduced them to Rock Band....pretty much spent all night rockin' with the kids. Zach is a born drummer....I think his parents know what to get him for his birthday....

Carter is concentrating so hard in this one....Lady is in the background, running circles like a crazy person!

Oh so many streamers...all on Carter's head....

Kenzie...losing the war of the streamers...

Such girls...both of them!

It was a fun night with way too much food. We had enough to feed 4 or 5 families....we'll be eating leftovers for the next week. 2008 has been a good year for us. And we have loved getting hooked up on blogs and facebook. It so fun to keep up on what everyone is doing, and see everyone's families growing up. Hope next year is at least as good as the last one!