day dreaming Samuel

A couple weeks ago a milk-mustached Samuel was staring off into space looking distinctly un-Samuel-like. Still cute so SNAP went mommy's camera.

tee ball and teeter tottering

Two Wednesdays ago we had some gorgeous weather and the kids begged Terry to play outside with them. He remembered the baseball tee that we had given Samuel for his birthday and took the opportunity to re-introduce them to tee ball.

We used to play a lot of tee ball in Gburg (Noah played one summer when he was five) but got away from it for some reason. At some point our baseball tee broke.

And now Samuel is as big as Noah was then!  

Samuel and Noah were running for home base. 

Later that afternoon we went to Canyon Lake (like we had the week before) to play. Noah and Ezra are nearly equal in weight to...

...Evie and Samuel on the teeter totter. 

mystery dinner

A couple weeks ago my friend Suzie organized a mystery dinner for several of us to participate in. We were all assigned different characters to portray and information necessary to our characters to announce throughout the course of the dinner and evening in order to solve which one of us had murdered the sweet shop owner who had invited us to her shop.

Emily, Jana, Amanda O., Denise, Suzie, Jackie, Amanda S., and I are all pictured below. 

My character was a nutritionist so I wore my nursing scrubs and carried carrots around, lecturing everyone about healthy eating. Because I can't remember everyone's character names or jobs, I'll just say that Amanda O.'s character, a rich business woman, was the guilty one. Who would've thought she could be so ruthless while she had a baby! ;) It was a fun evening!

the big and little

Noah was taking a break from school a couple Mondays ago and Ezra decided to tackle him. Ezra is always doing that if someone is lying down - he's pretty ferocious. 

Cute boys. Short post.

dating our kids

A couple years ago when we first moved back to Rapid, Terry took Noah and Evie out separately, on a one-on-one date outing. They really enjoyed it but we got away from it, perhaps because we moved into our house and life started picking up. After hanging out with some friends, Aaron and Jessica, who do this with their kids regularly, we decided we wanted to get back into that habit. Terry took Noah and Evie two weekends in a row and then I did the same the following two weeks. 

Both times Noah preferred to go the the seedy Arcade in the mall. I mistakenly blew our entire $10 budget on arcade tokens. Mom fail. From Noah's perspective it was a win.

I do not enjoy or appreciate video games so the arcade visit was truly out of a heart of love for Noah. From here on out I'd like to do something more active with him - like biking or hiking. He's lacking in that department. Out of all of our kids he's the least interested in anything outside.

This lonesome game in the back corner of the dark, grimy arcade was the highlight of my visit. Star Trek Voyager and 7 of 9. Oh yeah. 

Crentist the Dentist

Terry, the kids, and I all had our teeth cleaned within the last month. Since we were there so often we fell into the habit of calling our dentist (Dr. Carpenter) "Crentist the dentist" based off an episode of The Office where Dwight is lying about missing work for a dentist appointment. 

This was Samuel's second dental cleaning. No cavities for any of us (I've never had one and neither have the kids)!

Evie is finally getting her front teeth back.

And Noah is huge. I like this post from when he was only four at his very first dentist appointment.

stock show 2016 and mutton busting for Grace

At the end of the first week of February we took off a Thursday morning from school to go the Stock Show with Terry's folks and Shari and her girls. The first thing we did was go to the petting zoo.

There were a lot of kids in there but I wrangled them all together like a good cowgirl for a photo: Samuel, Ezra, Noah, Sarah (with  her "look"), Grace, and Evie.

Then I figured I needed to prove there were actual animals in there. Cows! 

Really, the only reason the kids want to go to the Stock Show at all is the escalator. No joke. 

Noah bought a wallet for $9 and I bought a couple things but what I really wanted was this cool bug wood table.  

There was a kids play area in the ice arena and I found a jiant jenga game, only a few inches smaller than the one Terry and Zeb made for the 2014 Fall Retreat. 

The silly promo video Terry made back then:

The kids got a kick out of these pictures. I like the bull's shoes...

Grace face.

Evie

That evening we all went to the fairgrounds along with Terry's folks, Shari and Jesse, and his folks to watch Grace try mutton busting for the first time. She saw them doing it at some point at last year's Stock Show and has been determined ever since to do it herself. She's pictured on the very left. 

We actually went to the wrong location at first but thankfully didn't miss a thing.

Here she is! Unfortunately she had a bad sheep...or it was harder than she thought it would be to hold on. I can remember wanting to mutton bust when I was little too. It's fun that she was able to. We really enjoyed the sheepdog trails afterward as well.

backyard sledding

Right now we're in the middle of mid-fifty degree temperatures but just a couple weeks ago we had a few inches of snow from the edge of a huge snowpocalypse that hit south of us. The kids are always happy to get snow though I am not. I have to put on the littles' snow gear for them and it puts me in a bad temper. I'll be ready for that to end, as well as wet underwear. Soon and very soon.

This must have been a Wednesday (Youth Group) since Terry was home in the morning playing with the kids.

He's a good daddy and pulls them around the yard. He stands in well for a four wheeler.

Take that Evie!

The littles' turn. 

We love not having neighbors behind us. 

In video:

The slide is more fun in the winter. So is the trampoline actually. 

When they came inside they had hot chocolate. What a cute mustache. 

Samuel's was less impressive. 

We received a bit more snow overnight.

Terry and the littles cleared the driveway while I did school with the olders. 

Samuel's 5th birthday

Two days before we had celebrated Samuel and Grace's fifth birthdays with Terry's family but on his actual birthday, Monday February first, we celebrated with my folks. It was quite sad not to have Nathan and Ana here like they had been the last couple years.

It's our tradition to wake our kids up with the birthday song. Samuel was very much still asleep even though it was 8am.

Nearly awake...

There we go, he's properly awake now. And so cute and big!

It was Monday and I opted to do school with the big kids while the littles did whatever they wanted to entertain themselves. I snapped a picture for a family text message of Samuel sitting downstairs reading books.

Samuel requested Bean Dinner for supper that night, a recipe of my mom's that's extremely easy and simple. Worked for me! Afterwards my parents came over. 

Happy birthday Sah-muel!

Get ready...

...and blow!

Is it weird Terry was wearing the exact same shirt last year for Samuel's fourth birthday? A little maybe...

It's been nice having a smart phone to take short little videos that are easy to incorporate into the blog. Here's the birthday song.

Evie is so expressive. "Hallelujah! The Shaun the Sheep Movie!"

A t-ball tee for the backyard.

And a scooter.

"Bllllack cake," as requested.

Ommmm. 

winter mountain biking

I hadn't been mountain biking since last summer when I fell in the mud but about a month ago Denise asked me if I'd like to go out with her and friends to Bone Collector. I'd heard a lot about it but never gone...plus I was intimidated by the name. Since Terry had been gone that week to Denver, we mutually agreed I could use some time away from the kids. It was cold and cloudy but so much fun. There was ice on part of the trail and I skidded out several times. I kept getting bumped off my bike. Plus my heart felt like it was going to explode. My legs were so tired that I couldn't even coast downhill squat/standing like you're supposed to. I had to rest on one foot. Oof. Challenging but great fun. Everyone said I did well even though they're all far better than me. And as a plus, Terry learned how to manage the pizza dough until I got home to finish it. What a good team we make. 

I also went with them the following week to Reder Road with a somewhat smaller crew including these peeps; Denise, Zeb, Jazmin, and Emma. Jaz and Emma are two of my small group girls who I love and apparently they love met too since they begged me to run a half marathon with them in June. So we're doing it. And mountain biking is good cross training. 

We are holding Jazmin's bike aloft because it was her last ride on it before she received her new bike the following week.