Candy Day

It's the most delicious day of the year!  And also the first day we get to really celebrate the Christmas season, with Christmas music, chocolate and lots of sneaking candy.  Nothing makes a candy day better than being surrounded by my kids and Josh, and feasting on chocolate all day long.  Don't worry, we saved some for everyone else.  We just got our fair share too along the way!

 

Black Friday

We ventured out in the wee hours of the morning to black friday shop "in person" this year.  It's been a while and it's way different than it used to be, but I have to say its a lot of fun and much less stress than the olden days!  We wandered around Kohls, Target and Walmart and even stopped for breakfast without so much as a small crowd in any of the stores.  Gone are the days of pushing through hords of people and throwing things from one aisle to the next to get just the right gift.  We had a leisurely morning and were quite successful with our purchases which is a win!  I think we may keep up this Black Friday tradition after all!

 

Thanksgiving 2023

We feel so blessed this year as we gathered with loved ones to celebrate Thanksgiving together.  Our bounteous blessings are evident when we set our table and sit together with lots of love and energy present in our home.  I couldn't have asked for a better day to remember how blessed our life is and how grateful we are to be close to family.  Happy Thanksgiving to all, near and far!

 

Thanksgiving schoolwork

Desh worked hard on some Thanksgiving worksheets today, just in time for the holiday!

 

Some things...

Do you ever feel like life is passing you by without asking permission?  Like you look up and all of a sudden your kids are all taller than you and they grew up right before your eyes?  Yah, I'm there.  I'm suddenly shorter than my two oldest boys, not to mention the girls that passed me up years ago.  I love my kids TO DEATH...and all the things they're doing make my life crazy and fun!  

Liev started going to the gym with us and boy is it a hoot to watch him try and lift weights with those skinny arms of his!

I've been the activity days leader for the 10-11 year old boys and we've had so much fun getting to know them and doing fun things together.  The last activity we had with them was to make marshmallow guns and have a marshmallow fight.  It hit the spot.  Those boys could not get enought!

Rhen and Josh cleaned up our yard one weekend while I was out and cut down an old bush that was getting unruly. 

Overall, our life is wild and crazy and fun.  I wouldn't change a thing about it.

 

BYU football

 

We LOVE going to the BYU football games together! This year has been a mixed bag of good/not so good games, on and off good weather and fair weather fans (Beck swapping to cheer for OU at the last second). But it's always our favorite fall tradition and we can't get enough cougar tails and chocolate mint brownies...

Rhen's friends

Rhen has a darling, fun group of friends that hang out all day during school and then somehow still manage to get together after school and on weekends, in between practices, jobs and homework.  They had a "Friends-giving" at our house this week and Rhen pulled out the nice dishes and all.  Potluck style with lasagna as the main dish, the Friends-giving was a hit!

 

Piano Recital

The kids have been working so hard on their piano recital pieces the past couple of months and their hard work paid off tonight!  They got to perform all their songs tonight and everyone did amazing!  Including Desh who is in his first year of piano and has only had a few months of learning.  So proud of these young ones who work so hard!

 

Sadies

Rease and her cute friends had so much fun asking dates to Sadies this year and coming up with their outfits for the "wild west" theme.  They planned their day date to an escape room and then had "cowboy nachos" at one of the houses before the dance.  The highlight was taking pictures at the Bluffdale Park that has western props all set up and were perfect for pictures for the dance.  She had a great time with her good friend Brian and I know they probably just laughed the night away like they usually do when they're together.  Ha!  Love this girl and her amazing friends!

 

Family Pics

 

Girls Trip

We took a girls trip to St. George to take advantage of the gorgeous fall weather and fall colors, hike and stay at Stephanie's house just outside of Zions National Park.  It was the perfect getaway to do something new and enjoy great friendships!  We had the most amazing weather and our hike on the west rim of Zions was just stunning.  We hit the fall colors at just the right time and enjoyed all that it had to offer us! 

One of might favorite things we did was visit the St. George temple and got to go inside for the open house!

 

Marching Band

Marching Band season is always a busy, great time for all of us, but mostly for Rease.  She absolutely loves every minute of the practices, uniforms, late nights, bus rides, performances, friend time, changing routines, pep nights and all.  She soaks it all in from the end of July until the first weekend of November when they perform at State in St. George.  

They had a really solid routine this year and worked so hard to master it.  They changed things up mid season and added new parts when needed.  By the time they got to state it was basically perfect.  They performed it so well and ended up taking 3rd at State which was so amazing!  I am so happy for her and proud of her for all her hard work!

 

Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone!

We had a mixture of scary clowns, abducted aliens and zombie morph suits in our family this year.  Some of the costumes were recycled from other years and some were new additions to the Halloween bin.  Whatever they were, they did the trick as the boys came home with LOADS of candy from their night of trick-or-treating!  What a fun night for all!

 

Fall Break in Puerto Rico

 

A few things...

We've had a few things going on.  

I jammed my finger playing basketball and it immediately turned blue on me.  Not likely it's broken right?!

General Conference was a highlight of the weekend and along with that, of course, is the Lincoln Log build that we do.  Desh made a house with a large train track running around it.  

We had Nolan and Chad in town for a day or two and made the most of their time here!  We met for dinner a couple times, took them to a BYU game and let all the younger boy cousins think they were THE COOLEST for being able to hang out with Nolan

Beck is a master at making breakfast, along with Liev who loves making german pancakes whenever possible

We took out our dead tree in the front yard and left a huge hole, ready for a new tree at any moment

Life just keeps living...and we're doing our best to keep up!

 

1st quarter - Desh

2nd grade at Herriman Elementary has been good for Desh!  He had a teacher switch after the first month (goodbye to Mrs. Towery was rough but hello to Mrs. Wimmer made the tears go away) and has loved being in the same school as Beck.  We're still waiting to get into the spanish immersion program but if not this year, next year for sure!  

 

1st quarter - Beck

Beck has loved the move to Herriman Elementary and loves his teachers even more!  His english teacher, Mrs. Nelson and his spanish teacher, Senora Felipa, are both amazing teachers and he has adjusted to half days in spanish.  Love this boy and all his hard work!

 

1st quarter - Keen

Keen is finishing off his elementary years at Butterfield Canyon.  He loves being the oldest in the school and recently got the Principal's Pride award.  He is a hard worker and charms his teachers and classmates.  Big things are in store for this one!

 

1st quarter - Liev

Liev is in 7th Grade at Fort Herriman Middle and so far has loved being a "Sev-y".  He's adjusting to life back in Utah and learning in english again.  He worked really hard getting his assignments done for all 8 classes, which is a big adjustment for a 12 year old.  Can't wait to see what this guy brings to the world!

 

1st quarter - Rhen

Rhen is living the dream as a 9th grader at Fort Herriman Middle School.  She just received the Diamondback of the Quarter award which is a huge honor.  The teachers all love her and her friends can't get enough Rhen.  She is quite a girl! 

 

1st quarter - Rease

11th Grade at Mountain Ridge High for this beautiful girl and she just finished her first quarter with a place on the Honor Roll.  So proud of her and all her hard work!

 

Lip Sync

Our family participated in the 2nd annual Lip Sync Battle in our ward.  We were one of the 15 acts that performed that night and we decided to go Puerto Rican with our song and outfit choices.  We made a short medley of some of our favorite reggaeton songs and then choreographed a 2 minute dance to go along with it.  I'd have to say we actually KILLED it!  Everyone went for it and a couple of the kids  only felt slightly embarrassed a few times.  Mostly though we just had fun and showed off our Puerto Rican heritage!  

Oh and Josh was the MC for the night and went all out with a pink jacket, wild shirt and long black wig.  No one could have pulled it off like he did!