Saying Goodbye

 My parents went into the Missionary training center on Feb. 18th and stayed until the 28th. We had 4 days with them before they flew out to Germany for 18 months. We celebrated at Cheesecake Factory with the whole family one night and also watched old family favorite movies, got father's blessings for all of us, and just had fun together.

We stayed up really late Sunday night talking and crying and having everyone say their goodbyes. Me and Melanie drove them to the airport in the morning. It was actually harder than I thought it would be and I cried pretty much the whole way home. It was so hard to let them go. I miss them like crazy still, but it is getting easier. They are officially residing in Dresden and are still trying to get settled into a different language and culture. They were hoping that most of the people would speak English but since Dresden was behind the iron curtain, most of them learned Russian as their second language. Plus they speak really slurred and with a different accent of German, so my dad who is fluent in German is having a hard time understanding them. I think it is getting better every day, but still difficult to get used to. My mom does charades with the people and gives lots of hugs! The kids are loving the hugs already and she is enjoying working with them over there. Skype and face time have become our new best friends!

Carter's 8th birthday and Baptism

 We have an 8 year old! I can't believe this day is here! He woke up early at 6:50 (He thought that he was so lucky haha) to open presents. He got this set of Hogwarts from his grandparents in England. He was thrilled!

 Love these three cute kids. They are getting so big!

 He is really into the game minecraft and plays whenever he gets the chance. This is a "creeper" on the game. Thank you pinterest! James made it and also added the nice touch of an 8 in rice krispie treats and also the earth squares around the outside. Carter loved it!

 He opted out of having a party this year and decided he would rather have the money for more presents and a ski day. James surprised him and checked him out of school to ski up at Sundance for the afternoon. Getting checked out is Carter's favorite thing. He loved every second of it!

 He is becoming quite a good little skier and loves to go fast. It kindof surprises me of him because he is usually pretty cautious. Not when he is up on the moutain!

 Enjoying a mid day snack to get his energy up to go again. He kept wanting James to take him on black diamonds. I think we might need to take the thing to make him stay in a snowplow off first! haha

 That night he wanted to go to Brick Oven for his birthday dinner. We love that place so we were happy to oblige! My parents were in the MTC and met up with us after their classes for the day.

 Birthday dessert

 Some fun things about turning 8 in our church is that you get to start cub scouts and the most important thing is that you are able to get baptized if you choose to. Scouts is going great. He is so excited about learning all of the cool stuff that boys do.

 On March 2nd, Carter was baptized. We were worried that my parents wouldn't be there because they were supposed to fly to Germany for their mission the day before. It turned out they didn't have anyone to pick them up from the airport on that day so we got to enjoy a long weekend with them before they had to leave. It was very special to have them there as well as my grandfather and all of my family. It was such a special day! Our stake had two sessions because we had so many kids getting baptized so we were at 11:30. We had everyone over after and ordered Tenney's pizza to feed everyone with! It was tasty!

 Carter got his own new suit for the occasion and he is looking so grown up! We love this sweet boy and couldn't be more proud of the boy that he is and who he is becoming. He is such a great big brother to all of his siblings and is such a good example to them. I love this boy!

Basement Completed! FINALLY!!!

It only took 8 months, but it finally got finished! We are loving the extra space and our boys loving hanging out down there. It is their favorite place to be and that was our intent, so win win! We now have a big family room, a huge storage closet, a work out room, guest bedroom, and bathroom.

Family room with the new carpet installed

View from the corner of the family room

Guest bedroom with nice big closet in the corner

Another view from the bed of the guest room

Family room with furniture in it

Guest bed

Closet in work out room

work out room closet inside

Lots of family over for Sunday dinner playing the wii

guest room closet

work out room

bathroom view from tub

Yay! It's completed!!

Valentines Day

 This year I for Valentines day I decided to write on the kids' doors all the things I love about each of them. They thought it was so fun! This is Claire's door.

 Carter and Preston's door

 Hudson's door

 I got to help in Preston's class this year for Valentines day. I'm sorry but kindergarteners are the cutest kids ever! They say the cutest things and are just so adorable. They made those little headbands that are "lovebugs". Then Preston made that sugar cookie and decided to add fruit loops to the top of it. (They were supposed to be used for another game, oh well!) Sugar overload!

 Cuteness overload! My mini walking Valentine!

 My parents love the Thanksgiving point dinner dance  so we went with them again this year. We always have a blast with my family but probably won't go again next year.

 Shauna and Mike are so fun to go with. They get into the music and love dancing with the band.

 This is my brother Greg and his cute girlfriend Cathy. This was their first Valentines day together. We love her and are crossing our fingers that they get married!

 James bought me roses this year (I love fresh flowers!) and we got our photo taken in the photo booth at the dinner dance. James sported the mustache pretty well.

Here is the group after the night was over. So much fun! Another successful Valentines day in the books.

Beginning of February

 I am so grateful for cell phone cameras! Even though they aren't the best quality, I capture so much more and have the dates all organized. I love it! Chase came over to play one day at our house. He and Claire are quite the pals and love to play together. They are so cute! I love this age!

 More intense coloring from Claire. 

 We finished most of the basement which has CHANGED MY LIFE!! Why did I not do this sooner? Oh, it was really expensive. haha I have loved it though and the boys spend about half of their day down there. It is so nice and cozy. I am really happy with how it turned out. It took almost 8 months from start to finish so to see this project be over is such a relief. I definitely appreciate it more though I think!

 We had a fun super bowl party in Melanie's new basement. Isn't it beautiful? They did a full kitchen down there that is like my dream kitchen with white cabinets. Love it! The Ravens played the 49ers and my brother Kevin is a huge Ravens fan so that is who we were rooting for. Plus our neighbor from Orem, Paul Kruger and a BYU player Dennis Pitta are on the team, so it made it more legit for us. The game was intense and we all were so excited when the Ravens won! It was a fun night.

 My cousin Rebekah is having her third child which is her first boy so we celebrated with a shower for her. I got to give her all my hand me down baby clothes from Hudson. I was a little sad to give them up knowing this is my last kid. It made it a little easier that I had no room to store them with all this basement construction going on though. It's weird to think I am not having any more babies.

 We got a new TV for our main living room. It had been about 6 years since we had bought a new TV and it was time to upgrade. We decided to go big or go home and got a 60 inch. Wow, it's enormous. Sports are a lot funner to watch for sure. You can actually see the ball! haha

As much as I hate half day kindergarten, I love that I have Preston home with us for lunch. I will miss him so much next year. Claire loves to eat with him and chat and ask him about his day. It's one of my favorite times of the day. They are little buddies, it's so cute.

January in a nutshell

 The month of January is the worst!! This January was by far, the worst January we have had for decades as far as the weather. It snowed a ton and was bitterly cold for the ENTIRE month. It was awful. I am so glad it is over! So most of these pictures are of us just being silly because we were cooped up in the house going crazy!

 We have to have cute pictures of Hudson on here, because who can really not want to see more of those? He was 6 months and loved sticking his tongue out and playing with it. He still loves it, but started doing it this month.

 This is also how I survived January. Tablets saved me A LOT. More than I would like to admit! Hey, you do what you can right?!

 This kid finally outgrew his baby bathtub. I don't have to buy another one ever again! It is kindof liberating!

 Hudson got REALLY sick with croup and double ear infections. He was miserable for a few days and it broke my heart. He usually is always smiling, so I know he was feeling horrible.

 The boys had spirit week at school and this was them dressing up for "nerd" day. I didn't even tell them what to wear they came out wearing this! I cracked up! Preston is wearing James' old glasses with the lenses popped out. Carter recycled his glasses from his Harry Potter costume. So fun! They love dressing up for school!

 The boys caught a few BYU basketball games with their Dad.

 Preston had a play date with his friend Jackson and they drew these fun silhouettes of themselves.

 While cleaning, I somehow noticed something stuck in the fireplace. I took the cover off and found that Claire had shoved two cars into the top of the vent. One was completely warped and this one had the entire inside melted out. I'm so glad I found them before the house burned down! Scary!

 Started a new cleaning schedule with my boys (which needs to be revamped again!) where they do a chore everyday besides their room and regular stuff. Preston is learning how to clean the toilet. He actually thought it was fun!

 Homemade donuts is our favorite treat to make for family dinners. James made a whole bunch of different flavors this night-one included candied bacon...yummmmmm.

 I love coloring with Claire. She is so intense about it and gets her face so into it.

 Hudson finally started eating baby food. I hate feeding kids baby food! I've said it before and I will say it again. Such a pain, and it takes forever! This was squash which he wasn't a big fan of. He gags down vegetables and will sometimes do a shudder if it tastes bad, I laugh so hard. He loves anything with bananas and that is sweet.

 She is obsessed with getting her picture taken. I have about 100 pictures of her either that she has taken herself when she stole my phone without my knowledge, or when she has begged me for about ten minutes. But isn't she so adorable?

 The end of the month we got SOO much snow! It is now finally melted (it only took a month and a half) but we had fun when it first got here. The boys made a little snow cave that Preston is laying in.

 We also used the sled that James made about 4 years ago with the 11 year old scouts that has been sitting in  our garage. The kids loved it and James got a great workout!

 My little Michael Jordan.

 For 100s day (when they have been in school for 100 days) they had to make a poster with 100 of something. This was Preston's creation. I think it was a puppy and then he added more than 100 stickers because he wanted to add some more to his face. I laughed so hard!

More tablet time...look at those cheeks. They are just scrumptious! We barely survived January. It was dreary and definitely not my favorite time. I am so grateful that we don't have winter all year, I don't think I would make it!