Jonah's Blue and Gold Banquet

Jonah and Scott made a cake that looked like a kite for his Cub Scout banquet. Jonah received his Wolf badge. The new stake cubmaster asked two men to hold him upside down so I could pin on his badge then he had to do a good deed to turn it the right way. When I did cubs we turned the boys when they received their bobcat but Jonah loved it anyway. We had a lot of fun as a family and the boys ate lots of cake!

February Birthdays and Temple

Esther and Mallory at Sweet Tomatoes for our Valentine dinner!

We had a little cake and ice cream to celebrate Scott, Ezra and Nicole's birthdays on Feb. 12 because we were all going different directions for President's Day weekend. I gave Scott and the boys tickets to the All-Star Jam in Phoenix for his birthday. They drove down Friday morning and came home Saturday night. They had a blast and if I ever figure out how to get pics from a cell phone onto my computer I will post some pics. They did all different skills competition, Bump, half court shots, and games. They loved their hotel that had a glass elevator and 13 stories. Hannah was going with the YW to visit the Draper Temple Open House for the weekend. Esther and I were going to have a nice quiet weekend. Hannah's YW pres. called me Wed. needing help transporting kids up to Draper. We had gone throught the Draper temple open house as a family in January and our kids loved going. So Esther and I got to drive YW up on Friday afternoon and we stayed with Scott's mom, who also lives in Draper. We went to the temple open house. The temple is beautiful and peaceful the YW/YM had such a good experience. It was a great weekend and I am thankful we were able to go. Hannah has great YW leaders. What a blessing to have more temples built, the brochure that they handed out was very informative about every room in the temple. I am so lucky to have great in-laws that I can hang out with and have fun.

Jonah's Play

Jonah's 3rd grade class put on a reader's theater for their parents. Jonah was the troll. He used Scott's scary mask and used a raspy voice. He enjoys being in the spotlight. Scott, Esther and I went to the school and pulled out Noah and Ezra from their classes so Jonah had the biggest group of fans. Esther hates that mask and would not watch the entire performance! We told her Jonah was going to be wearing it and she thought she would be okay but when we walked in the classroom, she grabbed my neck and would not turn around or let go!

Ezra's 7th Birthday Party

We had a fun bowling party for Ezra and 8 friends. They are so funny. The boys love to wrestle and run so after 45 minutes at the bowling alley we went home and let them run around the backyard. I had games and activities planned but they were content to play tag and football. Boys are great!

Noah's Basketball Team

Noah tried out and made the 6th grade basketball team. Noah and his friend Jayce are the only 5th graders on the team. This week they had their first home game, yeah! The month of December all their games were away and since we live in Page that means traveling 1-2 hours for each game. Jonah and Scott only missed one away game, they went to Kayenta 3 times, Shonto, Navajo Mountain, and Tuba City. Everyone except Hannah went to Noah's game in Cameron, we ate at the restaurant after the game, it has the best Navajo tacos and fry bread we have ever had! We drove home in a blizzard. Scott has stories of his coaches almost going off the road in snow. Noah is following his dad's footsteps. We like taking Noah home in our suburban because the coach doesn't always have seat belts for everyone! Everything runs on rez time and his schedule changes at least twice a week but he has had fun and we love watching him play. Noah has scored a basket in every game and wants to keep up his streak.

We Love Chocolate!

Hannah had her birthday party on Jan. 9. We had a chocolate party. Hannah made her own invitations that had different pics of chocolate. We had chocolate pizza for dinner (and pepperoni). The girls then made chocolate dipped pretzels, with dark, milk and white chocolate. They got very creative with the sprinkles and coloring. We let each girl pick someone they wanted to take their treats to and we put them in cute bags, the girls made note cards. We then drove around dropping off the treats. When we got home it was 9:30 and we started our chocolate fountain. The girls ate 9 lbs of strawberries in one night! We also dipped cinnamon hearts, pound cake, bananas, and marshmallows. In the morning we made double chocolate waffles for breakfast. Hannah has fun friends and it was a blast.

Merry Christmas!

Esther got a hairstyling apron from Grandma Hardy, so she went right to work on Hannah's hair.



Noah had wrapped the present he bought for Jonah in 6 different boxes one inside the other-the outside box was enormous! Jonah had to keep tearing off paper to get to the next box and this pic shows Jonah finally getting to his present.


We had a wonderful Christmas! Christmas Eve day we always make and decorate gingerbread cookies to leave for Santa. Our friends the Mallavias came over to help. Christmas Eve night we have our big ham dinner and our friends the Skaggs came over. Then the kids performed the nativity. Esther was Mary, Jonah was Joseph, Ezra a donkey, Noah a shepherd, and Hannah and Laura were angels. We love this tradition. Hannah, Noah, and Jonah played Christmas songs on the piano and we sang along. Christmas morning it is our tradition that Santa puts a sheet up covering the front room where he brought presents. The kids all slept in Noah's room. They woke up at 7 and have to come upstairs to wake us up. I go down to the kitchen and make orange julius for everyone and we drink it up in our bedroom. Then we have family prayer before the kids line up on the stairs for a Christmas morning picture. Then Scott opens the curtain and the kids can see what Santa brought. After an hour or two of Santa gifts, we eat breakfast which of course is hootenanny pancakes. Then we open our presents. We are so blessed to have healthy kids and a good job. We love this time of year.