Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Thanksgiving and More!

We were able to spend Thanksgiving in Neola with Morrills and we had a great time!

We stopped at the train station in Heber for dinner on our way out there...
Not pictured, when Christine and I almost died driving out there!  Parker took the kids in our van and Christine and I drove her car which had bald tires.  We hit a bad snow storm and got stuck and almost hit lots of times!  A normally two and a half hour drive ended up taking five!  Luckily, the kids were angels and we made it safe.

Michelle and Tegan decorated the kids table so cute...



Tegan's veggie owl...
All the sisters minus Jackie who was in Oregon, we sure missed her!
The beautiful adult table...

Time to EAT!!





The kids had so much fun sliding down the stairs on their bellies!  Jackson has quite the battle wound on his stomach from this!

Tubbin with the cousins...
Morrill family tradition...going to pick out a Christmas tree!


Parker picked an absolute HUGE 12 foot tree...

Sunday night we decorated it, it was Tyce's turn to put the star on...

 Chester LOVES climbing in the tree...
 And tipping it over...

 Finally it was finished...

Wouldn't be a blog post without KITTY pics...

Haha, Chester fell in Tyce's tub and got pretty wet, he was NOT happy...

He also had his first time in the snow, it was cute he would play with it and make a snowball then chase the snowball...
Sleeping in Jackson's drawer...
Gathering at the watering hole...

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Busy Busy Busy!

My life here in Utah seems to be so much busier than back in Virginia, probably because of family and as the boys get older they get more busy.  But I love it!  I'd choose busy over nothing to do ANY day!

Luna cracks me up, she sits like this almost every day...


Halloween...






Kesti and I took the boys trick or treating, and by taking them I mean sat in the car at the end of each horseshoe to make sure they were safe.  :)  Neither of us love Halloween and were happy to spend it together chatting in the car!
Christine, Kai, and Zae met up with us for a while too...
Candy candy candy candy...


Seriously, four bowls of candy...
Emma and Joshy reading in his closet...


Emma and Jackson...
Tyce and Luke...
This is my lap most nights...

The boys had a half day at school so we headed up to Salt Lake to steal daddy away for lunch...



Chester and Luna helping me with my lesson for primary...
Josh and Emma wearing each other's sweatshirts...
Josh reading to Emma..
Playing doctor...
Tyce and Luke were hilarious playing doctor, they took it very seriously...
Parker is our new ward organist!  He rocks and I LOVE listening to him play!  Best part for me?  He HAS to be early for church so no more me sitting in the car honking for him to hurry up!
 Where's Luna?!

Jackson got his braces off!

 This was a year ago...
And now...
We celebrated by getting Arctic Circle!
Josh's teacher asked parents to let their kid stay up to watch the elections!  Josh had a big packet about Trump and Hillary and he got really into it, him and Parker stayed up while the rest of us went to bed!
The cats were very concerned about who would win the election...
My dad's facility had their annual Thanksgiving dinner which was fun...

Luke and Tyce reading again, seriously these two are such good buddies.  They play SO cute together with the most amazing imagination.  Their favorite game is killing bad guys named Shercon!
Lukey had his 5th birthday party at Chuck E Cheese!










The boys were a big help with the Christmas lights...


What? There's a KITTY in my sink?  Stinker Chester is so disobedient!
Parker and the boys got the VIP treatment at the Weber State game, they got to watch it in the presidential suite which the boys thought was pretty cool.  Parker enjoyed seeing his old coach and some former teammates...






Can you find Luna??
 My awesome parents took the kids to Disney on Ice!  They had so much fun...





They each took turns having sleepovers at Grandma's too, we LOVE when they come to town...



The boys went to dinner and the Trolls movie with Lindsay, Luke, Emma, and Jason on Luke's actual birthday...




In case you can't tell we are LOVING living by our family!  It has added so much to our lives and I know we made the right decision coming here, as much as I miss things in Virginia.  Good news, Tyce and I are going to Virginia in March!  We are SO excited to stay with Traci and see all our friends!

Other things that have been going on that I haven't taken pics of...Tyce is doing stroke school and has passed off freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly!  Once he's taken breaststroke we can get him signed up for swim team!  He thinks he's the best swimmer in the world and LOVES it so I hope it keeps up! I would LOVE to have a swimmer in our family!

We had parent teacher conferences which went so well.  Tyce is way above grade level in everything and literally gets 100% on everything she gives him.  She is working on challenging him more.  We are considering putting him in the advanced placement classes next year but it's at a different school so it's a big decision.  She had nothing but positive to say about him academically but she also said how good his behavior is and how she always knows she can count on and trust him.

Jackson has a new teacher this year so she didn't say much but he is doing great and she loves having him in her class.

Josh's just made my heart melt.  It was a student led conference, which at first I thought was weird but his teacher had made sure they were well prepared and hearing Josh say all these positive things about himself was just precious.  He is doing SO well in school this year, his teacher is unlike anything I've ever met (and we've had some GREAT teachers in the past!).  She motivates him a way no other parent, relative, coach, or teacher ever has and it SHOWS.  He is so on top of his work and always wants to do above and beyond which is NOT typical Josh.  Typical Josh does the bare minimum to get by.  Not this year!  He is excelling at school, straight A's, highest reading group, and of course after all that...his teacher goes on and on about what a sweet boy he is.  She says "he definitely is part of the cool kid, athlete, smart, handsome group, but you can put him with ANYBODY and Josh works well with them, helps them, treats them with such kindness."  Parker and I left beaming with pride!

That's about it!  Looking forward to Thanksgiving this week!!!