Battery Power

Max had Science Fair this week. I've got it down to a "Science" now. He did his experiment a couple of weeks ago. He tested three different batteries to see which one lasted the longest (it was Duracell by the way). He had to carry a flashlight wherever he went all day to make sure he knew when it went out. His notes were a little hard to figure out with all his starting times and ending times and different batteries so hopefully our results were correct, but this is 5th grade science fair.

Here Max is at school after talking to the judges. He said it was pretty fun and he got a good grade. Shew, done.

Sewing Projects

Jon's mom came to visit during the week. Maddie has been wanting a white skirt for a long time. She talked Grandma into going and getting different fabrics and showing her how to sew one. It turned out realllllly cute!

I also felt like sewing a project. Marilyn and I went to Gardner's Village which is a really cute shopping place. I found a Valentine pillow that looked pretty easy.With a lot of help this is my end result.
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New Year's Cousins

I am so bad at remembering to take pictures when I'm home! Fortunately Peter and Lyssa let me use their pictures to remember what a great NeW yEaRs we had this year. I really wanted to take Lyssa's family to Temple Square to see the lights, but it snowed really hard for 2-3 days and then the temperature dropped into the teens and stayed there. Not great outside weather. We did have fun just hanging around reading, talking and playing LOTS of games. The kids got a little stir crazy one day so we took them sledding just down the street from us.

Seth only went down the hill one time. It was so windy and cold.

Peter and Thomas giving up.

Katie and Maddie calling it quits!

Seth was really disappointed in himself. He "thought he would last longer than that." We told him he's actually the smartest of all the kids for coming in when it's that cold. That cheered him up a little.

Katie, Maddie, and Peter having a great time playing Scattergories. We also played Dicecapades, Moods, and another game I can't remember the name of. Lincoln, Donovan & Paige, Devon & Mary, and Ryan's whole family also spent a lot of time at the house, It was great to see everyone.

This was saying Goodbye, so sad. We were on our way to church (yay, 9:00 church) and the cousins were getting ready to leave. Tanner was already at the church setting up chairs.

Indoor soccer

One of the dad's of one of the girl's on Maddie's soccer team organized a team for indoor soccer. Maddie misses soccer so much in the winter and this will help keep her in shape for the next season. This was their first game which they lost by at least 10 points but she still thought it was so fun. It takes time to get used to playing indoors, there's a lot of different rules. You can bounce the ball of the walls but not the ceiling and there is no off sides.

This was after the game. The coach was trying to make them feel better from such a great loss but I think it's good for them to be pushed so hard, I might not feel like that if I were the one playing. Maddie's team won every single game last season.

On the way home, I thought I'd take a nice sweaty picture of Maddie, I'm sure she appreciates it. It was fun watching them play again after a couple of months of having a break.

Merry Christmas

I didn't take very many good pictures, it's just hard when there's a lot of people and a lot of excitement. Here's a picture of Max and Seth before the opening of presents. I tried to get Joshua and James in the picture also but everyone was moving too fast.

Maddie always gives Donovan a hard time about his mustache, she just hates them for some reason. So, Donovan and Paige made Maddie a t-shirt that's awesome. Maddie's looking mad...as mad as she can get anyway. I'm so glad they can match.

Tanner can actually play the drums on his shirt. This might be a problem when he wears it to school. It's also a little bit of a pain to wash. Glad he likes it.

Max and Seth got a race track from Grandma and Grandpa. They've never had one and it's quite the hit. Here's Maren and Seth playing with it.

We had a late lunch that was like Thanksgiving, it was so good! We had ham and turkey and everything that goes with that. Paige, Jon, Melanie, Sherry, and Gram are all helping in the kitchen, I don't think there's room for me to help.

The best part about Christmas day is enjoying each others company. Buddy, Ryan, Lincoln, Tanner, Mary, Devon & Donovan talking away.

The Grinch

Last night we had a huge Christmas party for all the Young Women in our ward. It was so much fun. It was hard to find flashy who-like clothes to wear but we managed. Here's cute Maddie-lou-who


This is the Mayor of Whoville. He even let the Y.W. put blush on him, pretty good sport!

The older girls had a lot of fun doing all the other girl's hair. They used cups and pipe cleaners and curling irons.


We watched the cartoon version of The Grinch, ate Who pudding, linked arms and sang the Who song, and opened presents of scarves that are so cute. It was a great party!

Seth-- Green Belt

Last Friday Seth competed to get his green belt. He gets SO excited to get a new belt, I just get nervous. They have to memorize quite a bit but I guess that's what they do at all those karate classes. Now he's in an intermediate karate class which means he also gets a new gi. Now he's red and green just in time for Christmas. Good job, Seth!!

This is a battle between the karate kid and balloon boy. I wonder who will win?

Sew Pretty part 2

Grandma Marilyn asked Maddie and I if we wanted to go to the fabric store with her. Maddie found some really cute fabric and so Grandma had to buy it for her. Maddie loves to sew but still needs help and sadly she can't get that help from me. Fortunately she has two grandmas that are great sewers and are willing to sew with her when needed.



She made pajama bottoms. Here is the end result. TA DA!

Idahoan Thanksgiving

We were going to jump in the car right after school on Tuesday and head up to Idaho. Then a big storm hit so we decided to wait until Wednesday. The storm had passed but the roads were still very slippery because it was SO cold. It took us 6 and a half hours instead of 4 to get there. But once there, it was worth it!


Maddie and her cousin Calli were in charge of putting together the cute place settings and setting the table. At this age the girls love to help so it's nice for everyone.

I only had to make one thing, my trifle dessert. It was a pretty stress free Thanksgiving for me.

Tanner and Quentin playing The Farming Game while waiting to eat.

Seth heard we were eating at 2 so he made sure that happened. Good thing he has his watch!

Harry Potter Land

A couple of weeks ago, Jon had an NCTE conference(National Convention of Teachers of English or something like that). It was in Florida at the Disney World Resort. I thought maybe I should go with him. My parents took the kids from Wednesday to Sunday, which was pretty long, I have a hard time leaving them. We felt weird going to Disney World without the kids so instead we spent a day at Universal Studios to see Harry Potter Land. I don't think it's really called that but that's what I call it. It was really fun to walk around and do a roller coaster here and there. The main Harry Potter ride in the Hogwarts Castle was pretty amazing.

This is the scene when you first walk into the park, not the main park but the Harry Potter part of the park. It was 70 degrees that day so the snow definitely is fake.


There was a dragon roller coaster that was crazy, I could barely walk when I got off. I think I may be getting a little old for some rides.

We did all the rides twice and them explored the rest of the park then decided to go back to Harry Potter Land for lunch. I'm glad we did. We ate at the "Three Broomsticks". It was cool. We both had two butterbeers and felt a little sick afterwards. They are non-alcoholic by the way. It tasted like cream soda and then they added something like cream to the top that was really good and really sweet.


The lighting was pretty bad in this place so I'm not going to post the picture of me in this restaurant, but I'll post Jon. We brought back the kids some jellybeans that really had flavors like "ear wax, dirt, vomit" and some normal ones like apple and cherry. They ate all the gross ones first and left the normal ones. They said dirt really tasted like dirt. They tried to get me to try some but I was not interested at all.

The rest of the week Jon went to meetings and I scrapbooked, watched Alias season 1, and read a book. It was nice.

NEVER take off your wedding ring

Well, Jon and I have both gained weight since we were married, it's a sad thing. Jon noticed his wedding ring was feeling really tight and uncomfortable. I thought maybe we could get it stretched so he decided to take it off. He hasn't taken it off in a couple of years and he could not budge it. My ring still fits fine, I think I store my fat in other areas of my body.:) So he googled it and found out most jewelry stores use windex to slip it off, so he tried it. Nope. Another site said to tape your finger as tight as you can then slide it off the tape. Nope. So I called a jewelry store and asked if they had a tool to cut rings off and they sure did. I asked Jon if I could blog about it and he said sure. He usually doesn't read my blog because "he lives it," so I'll have to see if he reads this one about him.


Pretty tight.

The tool looks a little foreboding, it's like pliers with a little saw wheel.

He had to turn the crank for about 5 minutes, it didn't hurt at all...for me.

Then once it cut all the way through, he took some pliers and bent it apart.

AHHHHHHHH. Now in 4-6 weeks after his finger is normal again he can get sized and buy a new ring.

Climbing Wall Max

After Max's last Flag Football game one of the parents said she owned a rock climbing place and thought it would be fun to take all the boys there for a party. We didn't really know what to expect. Jon had church meetings so I said I would spend time with Max. I got to learn how to belay which basically means hold the rope that holds Max up and take in the slack. It was really fun. The first attempt Max only went up about 8 feet and wanted down but then he was dying to try it again and each time went a little bit higher.


This guy was teaching Max how to tie his rope, kind of important. He should pass off a scout thing for this knot, it was huge!

Different colors meant different difficulties.

Fun times!