Ice Skating

 Kierra has recently developed a love for ice skating and she wanted us to go with her.  Fortunately, when I called the Olympic oval, to check the hours, they told me that night Comcast was sponsoring a skate for free night for their customers.  What a deal!  So, we decided to go.  Not only did we get to skate for free but they gave free churros and hot chocolate.  And...we won 4 free skating passes in the drawing. I love free things!

Dale helping Katie with her skates

Dale helping Jadon with his skates.  Jadon couldn't get the laces tight enough

Katie absolutely loved skating!  who wouldn't though if you got to hold hands in between two big people and basically float around the rink!

Kierra made Katie try it by herself

 Jake and Kyson didn't quite get the hang of ice skating.  Kyson said it hurt his feet and Jake is basically gumby.  We would try and help him and he would fold in all sorts of directions.  Because it was pretty crowded that night, they wouldn't allow the walkers that help kids learn to skate, out on the ice.  We are going to take the kids back another time so they can try it with the walkers.


Add caption

 We had a great time together.  It was fun to skate again.  It brought back memories from when I was young.  Katie wants to sign up for lessons because she loved it so much.

Jaxon has been ice skating a few times before and he doesn't enjoy it.  He did get on the ice once...for our family picture

Jaxon's 13th birthday

Carter Ricks, Josh Lowry, Cameron Farley, Jaxon, Gavin Hiller, Mitchel Ostler and Dylan Tingey

When I was updating my blog a few weeks ago, I couldn't find Jaxon's 13th birthday pictures.  I finally found them.  Yay!  So he had a party at the cabin to celebrate his 13th birthday.  He brought 6 friends and Dale and I went as the chaperones.  They had pizza and watched a PG-13 movie, since he is legal now.  They also played all sorts of games in the cabin and a few outside.  Unfortunately, there was a funeral in our ward the next day so we had to get up and leave pretty early in the morning.  They had a good time while we were there though.

Pigging out on pizza!

Jaxon wanted to play the candy bar game.  He got a box of gumballs and ate the whole thing

What a handsome 13 year old!

Jaxon turned 13 on a Sunday which he was pretty disappointed about.  At least it wasn't a fast Sunday.  I can't believe that I have 3 teenagers living in my house now.  Time is flying so fast.  Jaxon continues to excel in sports and is good at any sport he tries.  He received a bow and arrow for Christmas and is very good and has amazing aim.  He's playing basketball right now and is doing great.  Of coarse, we are getting excited for the next baseball season to start.  Jaxon is doing well in school but has found out that middle school isn't as fun as he thought it would be.  Too much work.  He is coming along in scouts.  He is close to getting his eagle and I will be so thrilled once that is done so that I won't have to push him along anymore.  Jaxon has a very strong personality.  That's all I have to say about that.  He is an affectionate kid and always wants to give me hug.  He's funny.  He is taking Theatre this semester in school.  I think he will have a lot of fun if he doesn't think it's too nerdy.  I worry about Jaxon all the time and I hope he knows that we love him and want him to be happy.  He asks me all the time what I would wish for if I had one wish.  I tell him that I wish that all my kids will be happy and stay on the right path.  I hope he can help that wish come true.

2014

Kierra getting crazy with her root beer

Katie and Jake

Kyson, Kierra and Katie

For New Year's Eve we stayed at home and played games and then pigged out on junk food.  We played several hours of connect four and then played a game on the ipod called heads up.  We had a good time together.  I'm excited to start a new year and I hope that I can make the changes I want to make this year.  It's been great to get back to my blog.  I wasn't able to blog for a long time because my computer was on the fritz but I got a new computer for Christmas so I will be able to keep up with what's going on with our family again.  Yay!  Happy New Year!

Christmas 2013

Sugartown village

 I love Christmas!!! It is always so much fun to have the excitement of Christmas in our house.  Christmas Eve is probably my favorite part of the holiday season! I love the tradition we have of going out to dinner and then to a movie.  This year we went to Texas Roadhouse and then to see Frozen.  We had such yummy food and the movie was AWESOME!!! We started another Christmas Eve tradition this year.  Dale bought me the precious moments Sugar Town when we first got married and we only got it out for 2-3 years.  Once Jadon could walk, we decided not to get it out because we were afraid it would get broken.  It's been in storage ever since.  This year, Jadon suggested that we set it up for Christmas.  I decided that it would probably be ok since the kids are old enough to trust with it.  We used our kitchen table to set it up.  The kids loved getting the pieces out and putting it together.  I forgot how much I love the whole set.  It was so much fun to have it set up for a few days in our kitchen.

Enjoying dinner at Texas Roadhouse

The kids waiting to open their Christmas Eve presents

Jaxon shooting the bow that Santa gave him

 Gladys gave Jadon, Jaxon and Kierra some banks that are breakable.  She wrapped them up in confetti.  As soon as Jadon opened the box he looked up at me and said "Mom, I'm going to make a mess!"  He then proceeded to throw confetti everywhere.  Not just once either.  Every time someone opened a present, he scooped up the confetti and threw it all over them.

 Our house was covered in confetti!  Jadon (with the help of me, Dale and Gladys) were cleaning up confetti for quite a while.  It was pretty hard to scoop up.  We vacuumed, swept and scooped until we thought it was gone...then someone turned on the fan.  Confetti went flying all over again.  We had to clean it up 3 times before it was gone.  Jadon says it was worth it. 

This Christmas was the year of the new shoes.  Dale, Jadon and Jaxon all got new shoes.

Kyson's 9th Birthday

 We all went to La Luna to celebrate Kyson and Katie's birthdays.  Before we went in Kyson asked me not to tell the waiter it was his birthday because he really didn't want them to sing to him.  So, of coarse, I had to tell the waiter.  They gave Kyson and Katie a sombrero and some maracas and some fried ice cream.  I think Kyson was ok with it once he got the ice cream.  After dinner, we went to see Despicable Me 2.  We had a great night celebrating my two little ones.

 Ever since Kyson went to scout camp, he has said that he wants a bow and arrow.  We were pretty excited to give that to him for his birthday.  He was very nice and let everyone in the family take a turn shooting the bow and arrow.  We spent a few hours outside having a great time together.  I love his serious face when he is shooting.

Kyson is such a great little kid.  He wants to do what's right most of the time and is always concerned about everyone else, especially Jake.  He is constantly reminding Jake what he needs to do.  He is a kid who worries a lot.  He wants to make sure everyone is safe and doing what they are suppose to.  He is doing very well in school and is super good at math. He has become really good at sports and enjoys playing anything, especially football with the neighbor kids in the back yard.   He is a really special little kid and I'm so thankful that he is in our family.  I love you Ky-ky (he hates it when we call him that)!

Katie's 5th Birthday

Katie with her new birthday present

 Katie was so excited to turn 5.  A couple of months before her birthday we found a great deal on a power wheels jeep so we got it and hid it in the shed until her birthday.  Just a couple of days before her birthday, she and her friend Jaxon were playing outside and went in the shed to find something and saw the jeep.  She came running to find me and told me she saw something in the shed that she has never seen before.  She was very excited.  I explained that it was her birthday present. She felt really bad that she found it when Daddy wasn't there.  She had a blast driving around in her new jeep all afternoon.  It's a good thing she found it early because it snowed a few days after her birthday and she hasn't been able to ride it since.

Our little 5 year old

We went out to dinner at La Luna to celebrate Kyson and Katie's birthday together.  They put sombrero's on them and gave them Maraca's to shake while we sang happy birthday to them.  After dinner we went to see Despicable Me 2. 
Katie is growing up so fast.  It's hard to believe that she will be going to Kindergarten next year.  She loves preschool and dance and is learning so much.  She's very smart and has a great memory.  She has a lot of friends that love to play with her.  She loves dolls and princesses and can play with them for hours.  She absolutely loves the babies that I tend and never gets sick of them.  She and I have a great time together.  She is my little buddy.  Whenever I am going somewhere, no matter where it is, she wants to come with me.  She always likes to snuggle with me and give me hugs.  I love my sweet little Katie-did!

Trip to Diisneyland November 2013

Our family has been talking about going to Disneyland for a very long time. We have done several things to earn our trip to Disneyland.  Several year ago we started a family exercise plan where we were going to exercise our way to Disneyland.  We completed that.  We have a trip jar that everyone put their spare change in.  That was full.  We decided that we better finally take our trip before Jadon leaves on his mission.  We wanted to go when it wasn't going to be crowded so we decided to take the kids out of school and go on November 1, 2013.  The kids were very excited and couldn't believe that we were actually going.  We decided to fly because Dale didn't want anything to happen to the van on a long trip.  Also, it gave us more time since we didn't have to waste 10 hours each way in the car.  The flight was at 8:00 am on Nov. 1st.  Since it was Halloween the night before, we didn't get much sleep but nobody had a hard time getting up.  We were all too excited! 

All the kids on Splash Mountain

After we checked into our hotel, we went right to Disneyland.  It was very crowded that day and we spent 70 minutes in line on our first ride.  It was Radiator Springs.  It is a new cars ride that was very cool.  That ride was going to be closed the rest of the time that we were there so we had to bite the bullet and wait in the line.  It was very cool.  The rest of the time we spent there was not crowded and the weather was perfect!  We never waited more than 15 minutes in a line.  Splash mountain was definitely a family favorite.  One of the nights we went on it during the nighttime shows.  There was no line so we rode it over and over and never got out of our boat. 

Tower of Terror

The other family favorite was The tower of terror.  It took going on it a few times before it became a favorite for some of the kids.  We had to make Jake, Kyson and Katie go on it the first 2 times but after that, they loved it!

My pictures uploaded out of order but here we are, bright and early, at the airport waiting to board the airplane.

Our family at California Adventure

This was the first time anyone had been to California Advenure.  It was really fun.  It had the more thrilling rides while Disneyland has the magical rides.  Both places are awesome!

A day at the beach

We went to Huntington beach.  We spent about 3 hours there and the kids had a blast.  This was the first time that Katie has seen the ocean.  Everyone else has been to the ocean before but Kyson didn't remember it. 

We buried Jaxon in the sand and made a sand castle around him.  Everyone, except me and Katie, went in the ocean and jumped the waves.  We chased birds and played beach football.  It was a great day!

Medieval Times

That night we surprised the kids and took them to Medieval Times.  It was a super fun night.  The kids had a great time eating without any utensils and cheering for our designated knight.

Katie with Belle

Dale spent several hours with Katie in Princess land.  The only way to see the princesses is to go in the designated area and wait in line to see them.  Since it took a few hours, We went on some rides while Dale did the princess thing with Katie.  Katie was so excited that she got her picture taken with all her favorites (except Ariel and Jasmine) and got their autographs too.

We all loved our week long trip to California and didn't want to go home.  Disneyland is such a wonderful place and we will never forget the wonderful memories we made there!