Roasting in December

The weather has been so mild this winter. On December 29th we had a hot dog and marshmallow roast for lunch. It was crazy to be outside and not worrying about how cold it was or if you're Morgan, even wearing a coat or jacket!

I sure love these little crazies! It is good to be back together again during the Christmas Break.

Art Show Winner Winner Chicken Dinner Dinner

The high school had an art show and every student was required to enter one of their pieces. Mrs. Sprackland asked Kelsey to enter two of hers. She entered a batik Day of the Dead and her monochromatic Indian, Overdue Reminiscence. She won first place in the painting section and $20! 

Kelsey is a talented girl.

32 little Indians

"That day at school I was an Indian. Me and my class performed a skit.That day at school was very very very fun. In the skit I was a buffalo and my friend pretended to shoot me. Don't worry he didn't actually shoot me I am still alive.

These are my Indian buddies - Dominic, Ethan, Tristan, and Casen." - Emmitt

Emmitt's class has been learning about ancient civilizations all over the world. They did a fantastic job doing a poem/chant/reading with some shakers made out of toilet paper tubes with beans inside all decorated up. They also did skits and portrayed the ancient way of life. I am pretty sure there was a rain dance as well. Mrs. Fillmore is an incredible teacher. December 15th 2017

Interfaith Creche Exhibit

"My mom says to go to the creche. I like being my mom's angel girl. My mom makes me happy. And I love baby Jesus. I am an angel. " - Kenna

I would love it if I could get a picture of the kids dressed up at the Interfaith Creche Exhibit every year at Swiss Christmas in Midway. This is the second year of doing this. So blasted cute!

Another sweet tree from Boulder

"I sluffed yoga so for extra credit our teacher allows us to send her pictures doing yoga poses in everyday situations." - Kelsey

We went Christmas tree hunting on Boulder Mountain again this year on the first weekend of December. The weather was so warm, we hardly needed coats. 

We found a tree for us and one for Carol. 

Heath is just so cute, I had to get a picture of my handsome fella.

"I loved to look like a bunny." -Kenna

"We got our Christmas tree. It was very fun hunting for it.

Me and the kids played a fun game. I was a wolf in the game.

We ran through the trees. It was very fun." - Emmitt

"I liked to do thumbs up." - Kenna

"We like to play a game that I was a wolf." - Kenna  

Kenna birthday

For Kenna's 5th birthday we had the usual 5 balloons ready for her when she opened her presents after church. This girl loves presents! Her brothers and sisters made sure it was a special day. They let her be the boss.

"It was my birth day. It was fun. Emmitt was peeking on my picture. I asked my mom for a chocolate cake with chocolate icing. I like being 5 now." - Kenna

A new front door

This is the AFTER picture.

(It is so awesome!)

Here is the last BEFORE photo of our house with the sliding glass door and crappy kitchen.

The sliding glass door didn't allow us to have a specific dining table spot. Usually when you opened our front door, the sliding glass one, you had to walk around our kitchen table. Heath was making us a new table where we could all sit and eat without bellyaching that someone was touching us (heaven forbid!) and with the door where it was, there was no room at all for the new table.

So we decided to change it. My dad came up of course to help because tearing out an exterior wall was a new deal for Heath and I. We removed the large picture window first and framed in a new smaller window and the new door. Another reason we wanted to change the large window placement is so the window in the opposite wall would be in the same place on the opposite wall.

After the new front door was in place, we removed the sliding glass door and put the big picture window in it's place. Heath worked hard on all the painting and trimming it all back out on the inside as well as the outside.  Well, actually, the outside took us awhile. Like, most of the summer. Which was a strange coincidence that Kelsey didn't invite many friends over all summer!

Here is the finished product. We love that the dining room table has a home out of the way and we love that the new door is SO MUCH more efficient and warmer than the slider was in the winter, and we love that we still have our incredible view. These pictures also show our new kitchen. We love it all.

Just like they used to sound!

I bought Heath and I tickets for his birthday to USANA's Tesla, Poison, and Def Leppard concert. It was June 19th. What a fun time we had. We were able to go last year as well in September and it was such fun to listen to music live that we heard all through high school on a tape!

This guy was running around the crowd acting like he was a star, like Poison's Bret Micheals kind of star! Everyone was running up to him taking selfies. Even though I knew it wasn't really Bret, I had to have a picture too. Just in case.

I'm grateful for the fun times I get to spend with this birthday boy of mine.

Heath's birthday - He's kind of a big deal!

For Heath's birthday I ordered a bunch of shirts that said "My friend Heath, he's kind of a big deal" and gave out about 30 of them to our friends around here in the Heber. I asked them to get on Facebook and send him a little HAPPY BIRTHDAY video of them wearing their shirts on his actual birthday. It was fun fun fun. This is our friend Angie. She was in Oregon at Multnomah Falls and posted this picture. It was so much fun to have everyone give him birthday wishes with their shirts on.

That evening I invited local friends, family, and coworkers up for a BBQ and fun. I ordered this monster sized tres leche cake that says "YOU'RE KIND OF A BIG DEAL" from the Mexican market. It is his favorite.

Our friends Mary and Kelly made Heath this apron for this birthday. It has fur accents which is an inside joke from a Regency Ball we went to with them where Heath insisted on a fur lined Regency tailcoat. We had a great evening and it was so fun to have fun Heber and Midway people that we love share it with us.

Kenna is an OWL

Kenna got to play Neighborhood T-ball again this summer. This is her second year and she LOVES it!  She is so blasted cute and she understands the game this year. It is one of her highlights to go play and it is one of my highlights to go watch her because she is with Matt for the first three weeks of the summer.

"I was the catcher. I like playing catcher because you catch the ball and it's easy with your mitt. Coach Heather helped me when I was little." - Kenna

                                                                                                                                                    

Her coach Heather Epperson arranges for their mascot to be the OWLZ like the Orem Owlz so their mascot can come up to a game and they kids can to go one of their games for free. The kids LOVE LOVE LOVE the Owl and think it's pretty darn special.

SUMMER IS HERE but we still found snow

One the 4th of June, Heath, Kelsey, Morgan, McKenzie and I took the Ranger up Snake Creek to see how far we could get before running into snow and also to check out our favorite camping spot. 

It was a bit chilly but it was so lush and fresh and beautiful!  It made us very excited for summertime and to get out and enjoy the great outdoors.

I also happened to bring home a few Snake Creek transplants for my yard. They will be great!!

We continued up the road to check out the snow levels and soon ran into a drift that was too much for our bald tires. We shoveled and then we used our winch. We felt like REAL off roaders!