The days of May

May gets to be a busy time, with end-of-school activities.  The boys only have about 2 weeks of school left.  

Yesterday was field day.  Our school, along with 3 other Lutheran schools met at a local park and participated in various competitions.  The kids had a lot of fun and the weather was wonderful.  I was able to tag along and watch.  Of course they were grouped by age, so I had to split my time between Dave and Andrew's events.  I didn't get many pictures, but I'll share what I have!

Board walk- Dave is second from the front.  This was a tricky activity, requiring more coordination than I have!  They had to walk as a team with their feet on boards, lifting at the same time.

 Andrew won at the sack race for 3rd grade!

 One of the "perks" of being almost twice the height of your friends!  Andrew giving a ride to one of his friends, Zane.

Dave is 12!!

I can't believe my oldest child turned 12 this year.  Next year we will have a teenager!  May 1st fell on a school day, so he took donuts in to share with his class that day.  On Saturday, we had a sleepover (a.k.a. video game marathon).

 Dave's friends Reggie, Cameron, and Elliott came over in the afternoon.
They had lots of time on the Wii, played with the neighbor kids outside, and Jake grilled burgers for supper.  I think they were up until about 2 am, before they finally crashed.

 When I got up in the morning, they were passed out all over the living room.  The words "cinnamon rolls" woke them all up, though!

above: Cameron, Elliott, Reggie, and Dave

Gaming

Dave doing what he loves best  :)

Overall, it was a really good time. The kids got along really well and had fun.  They're a good group of boys.  

Spring is in the air....kind of.

Well, the calendar says it officially Spring, but it's snowed the past two days.  Interestingly enough, last week it got up to 70 degrees for a few days.  Hmmm...

This week was the end of the 3rd quarter of the school year.  I'm sure the countdown will soon begin to the end of school.  Following Easter, the kids have the first week of April off for Spring Break.  No big plans, but I'm hoping we can do a few fun things around the area and the weather will be nice. 

We are anxiously waiting for June, when my parents are coming to visit for a week.  The boys have been talking to them more on the phone and thinking of things to do.  Hope they are up for paper airplane making and watching video games, along with some trips to play in the mountain creek and trails, and two days in Moab!! We can't wait!

Jake just got through the school accreditation team's visit this week, and all went well.  He can breathe a little easier now.  (Literally, he ended up with a bad cold a few days before they came in.  Always gets sick before something big.) Overall, we have faired very well health-wise this winter.  Nothing too major at all. 

Dave's class (6th grade) went on a field trip this week, which I got to tag along on.  They visited a classroom of 2nd graders in Salt Lake City that are in a low income district and read books to the students and donated some books for the classroom.  We also got to hear poems the 2nd graders wrote.  It was really cute. 

Some photos this month:

 

 

Welcoming Spring to our home!

 

Gertie enjoys the fresh air, too!

 

 

Finally got a glimpse of Salt Lake when I drove to another branch office to work

 

 

One day at home, Gertie decided to learn more about the animal kingdom!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Valentines and snowy fun

This past week was busy with 3 basketball games, two out of town, and Jake busy working on the upcoming school accreditation.  Things have been a little slower at work for me since a couple new nurses were hired.

Anyhoo, Valentine's day was on a game day, and I ended up driving Dave and 2 other boys on his team to the game.  Jake had given me a dozen roses and the boys gave me a great card and a box of chocolate Hershey's kisses.  I gave Jake some candy, a neat sign for his office and some framed photos of me and the boys that I printed off at home. I made cards for the boys, and they got candy, a few little things.

 

 

 



With the game, and an hour drive + with rush-hour traffic, we stopped and brought KFC home for dinner that night.

Jake and I decided to go out on Saturday, since we didn't really have time for anything on Valentine's day.  We ate BBQ and saw "Identity Thief".  It was pretty good. The rest of the day was a typical Saturday... cleaning, laundry, and groceries.

Sunday, we went to church and then in the afternoon, drove about an hour up to Soldier Hollow (part of the 2002 winter Olympics were held there). Our church had taken over the tubing hill from 4-6 pm.  It was a blast!  You flop yourself onto the inner tube, and they attach it to a cable-pulley thing that drags you up to the top of the hill. Then you just walk over to the one you want and take off!  Whew!  I wish I had gotten pictures.  It's a lot like those big slides that you would go on at the fair with a potato sack, but faster and colder! :)

It was a great time!

Link to Soldier Hollow, UTAH

Winter 2012-13

I've been needing to work on this blog, but too busy and don't have many recent pictures loaded on the computer, yet.  But, I'll give it a start...  

We spent the week leading up to Christmas busy with work and school activities.  The last day of school for the kids was Dec. 19.  They had the usual party fun with goodies and movies.  They stayed home with Jake the 20 & 21st while I worked at least a half day each, seeing patients.  On the 23rd, we were invited to a dinner/ party at our Pastor's home.  It was a fun time and nice to have something to do to mark the holiday with others since we weren't able to travel to see family this year. I saw patients again on the 24th . We let the kids choose the food for Christmas Eve... pizza and cheeseburgers! (big surprise, huh?)  

We went to church at 10 pm, ending with candlelight.  Always feels special the night before Christmas. :) We did our gift opening Christmas morning and got to Skype with both sides of the family, which was nice.  Jake baked a ham and I made some traditional sides and cookies for the meal.  

We spent New Year's Eve at home, and watched the ball drop on TV.  We saw some fireworks going off in the neighborhood.  New Year's Day we hung out at home, then went bowling in the afternoon.  

The kids (and Jake) went back to school on the 3rd.  Had to buy the boys new shoes, as they grew out and wore holes through their other ones!

January....

Busy back at work and Dave started basketball practice.  The boys usually have homework each day, but not too much.  

On Jan. 12, Jake and I experienced our first Mystery Dinner, with some couples from church.  I was most definitely the worst actor in the bunch, but it was a fun night.  

Andrew's class took a field trip to ice skate on the 15th.  He ended up with a blister, but (I think) had a good time.  It was his first time on ice skates. 

School was out for MLK day and I intended to stay home and enjoy a relaxing day, but ended up with a bad headache and spent most of the afternoon and evening in bed. Ugh!

Fortunately, none of us have had any illness so far this winter.  Let's hope that holds up!

Dave's basketball games started near the end of this month, so that has added some fun to our evenings!

 

 

 

Stretch!!!

 

 



February...

More basketball games, they've had a few wins and some really close games that were fun to watch.

Jake went to Phoenix with Pastor Brooks for a church & school conference. Got to see the sunshine and mid-60's temps, while we were here with 30's and haze and snow.  Next year, I'm gonna sneak in his suitcase.

Dave had an exciting day on the 8th.. School ski day. All the kids 4th-8th grade went up to Snowbird Ski Resort for skiing or snowboarding.  Of course, this is new to us, so he was on the beginner level, but had a fun time and all the kids arrived home late, but in one piece.  The buses were delayed coming back by a wreck on the road in front of them and when they had to put chains on the bus tires to come down the mountain!  They were expected back at school at 3:30 and ended up arriving about 5pm.  

We've been working on Valentine's cards and baked cookies today.  Dave went over to a friends to sled and play video games.  The boys are getting to know some friends better at school.  :)

Here's Dave ready for his first snowboarding adventure:

Until next time,

Annie

School programs

Sharing some videos from the boys' school Christmas programs...  (about 13 minutes total to watch all) we just got the parts they are in, not the whole program. )

Andrew's class did speaking parts about the miraculous birth of Jesus. 

Dave was in the Band concert.  He's a little hard to see behind his music stand, but is just to the left of the band director's left arm.

10 days 'til Christmas!!

I can't believe it's December 15th already.  The kids only have three more days of school left until they get a 2 week break. The weather has been fluctuating here lately from the 50's down into the 30's. We got some snow starting last night and I guess it's supposed to accumulate quite a bit in the next couple days. I finally got packages sent out to our families this past week, and so pretty much all that's left for shopping is to finish up the kids.  I did some baking today and both boys have had a chance to pick out gifts for each other and for Jake, so Jake's turn is coming soon to take them out to shop for mom!  Jake and I have gotten to that old age when we would rather just pick out what we want, to heck with being surprised!, so I think we might go out shopping for some clothes tomorrow afternoon.
   Gifts from Grandma arrived yesterday, and are under the tree, so I'm trying to keep the boys from snooping too much before Christmas :)  Jake was given booze as a gift from his school board president!  Guess he realizes how stressful his job can be!
  Andrew had his school program last Wednesday and Dave has a Christmas concert Tuesday for band.
We'll try to share some video later on...

Here's a couple pics of our holiday season thus far...

Our Tree

Jake and the boys at Christmas Village

  Andrew being silly at the Christmas Village

 Dave is cheesin!