Boys..

All 4 of us girls in this family just think this boy is the sweetest.  He  made us all laugh this morning as he fed his dinosaur a carrot.

Just LOVE this face.

He fell asleep on my bed with his legs in a hanger which was also pretty adorable. 

Cool Fort

These kids have the best dad.  He helped them make this awesome fort in the front yard this year with buckets.  We spent a good long time out there and sadly the snow melted within the week.  But it reminds me of the quote   “In family relationships love is really spelled t-i-m-e.”—President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Dustin's Fishing Trip

Dustin got to go steel head fishing with his friend TJ Floyd again this year.  They went to northern Idaho and as always he had a great time catching some really big fish.  He got to spent 4 days on the river and unwind from reality which is exactly what he needed that week!

The day he came home was the day before Valentines day and Saturday so I took the girls to get a cheese burger from McDonalds and go roller skating for their Valentine present.

I even skated with them this time and pushed Lincoln in the stroller.  We had a good time. 

And because Valentines was on Sunday a nice man delivered these from an even more nice man who ordered and paid for them for me.  Sure love my good husband!

Valentines Day

Valentines has always been one of my favorite days.  I love exchanging notes of love and kindness.  Every year Ella and I usually make homemade Valentines for her class however with 3 kids in school this year we decided to just go to the store and buy a few boxes of them. :)  Molly chose Inside Out, Alissa got Shopkins and Ella had some animals wearing silly glasses.  The little girls especially love filling out the Valentines for their classmates.

The older group even gets to make a Valentine box.  I was impressed with this cute Robot Ella came up with using a cracker box and some toilet paper rolls.  

The same day as the Valentines parties, the kids celebrated 100 days of school.  They needed to come up with a project clearly displaying 100 things.  My little Alissa has developed a new super indecisiveness trait which makes me not want to negotiate but just jump on whatever idea she can settle on.  Probably not the best idea for me to do that, but it's a survival technique I think.   Anyway, I hooked her up with some google images of 100 day projects and she decided to do a heart with 100 years inside of it which is kinda funny because that was Ella's project when she was in 1st grade too.

Sure love this family of mine.

Health Challenge Take 3

So last year I was involved in 2 health challenges.  Between the two of them I lost over 30 pounds and learned some important lessons about eating healthy.  In the health challenges you are required to read scriptures daily, pray daily, write in a journal daily, avoid sugar & junk food, get enough sleep, drink enough water, eat vegetables and fruit and exercise.  It's a near perfect recipe for taking care of your physical and spiritual body.  I notice huge differences when I am being obedient to it.

After I heard the girl that was in charge last time didn't want to do it again I decided I would.  I recruited and ended up with a group of 62 people who have participated.  We are ending week 6 out of 8 this week and it has been a great time.  It has taken a lot of time but again I have reaped great rewards.  I haven't lost a lot of weight this time.  Only 13 pounds which is still great, but not what I hoped for.  I haven't dedicated myself like I did last time.  I had found I am still recovering, emotionally and mentally from what I just went through the past few months.

I have felt more happy and healthy than I have in a long time though.  Through the past 6 weeks the kids and I have developed a habit of saying prayer and family motto together in the mornings and reading scriptures and saying prayer at night.  We have done it nearly every week night.  I feel like that alone is success.  Through working on my journal I have completed another blog book so now I'm only.. 4 years behind. lol but that is better than 5!

I have noticed huge differences in how I feel when I eat sugary or mostly carbohydrate foods vs. vegetables and protein some some carbohydrate.  I try to remind myself of this when I feel like I really need to make some brownies.  It's habit I guess and slowly but surely I hope to change it.

Ella competes in National History Day

Ella's friend Dani McLing talked her into participating in National History Day this year as her mom teaches History at Rocky Mountain Middle School.  The girls put in a lot of time and effort and did some studying to learn about the Encounter and Exchange of Frank Steunenberg (first governor of Idaho) and the Miners.  

They competed against only a few other students at this grade level and got first place which qualified them to compete in Boise at a State Level.  We will revamp the project and look forward to heading to Boise.  What a neat opportunity for her.

Ballroom Concert

After watching an assembly of kids ballroom dancing at her school, Ella decided that might be a fun thing to try.  She and her sisters did a month long clinic and had a lot of fun and she decided to sign up again for fall.

They recently had a concert at the Civic Auditorium with many if not all of the other nearby ballroom groups and they did terrific.  I was so proud of her for being so brave and doing so well!  Her partner is her cousin Ian.  She liked having her cousin as her partner because she says it takes the awkwardness out of it.  I snuck a few pictures of them before the show.

Isn't she a beauty!

Ella graduates from D.A.R.E.

After multiple months of participating in D.A.R.E. at school they had a graduation night for the kids. They each got Tshirts and held an amazing little graduation with all a slide show of the kids participating in DARE at school, the kids sang a song and got to share all the officers hands and a few officers did a little concert for the kids.  It was incredible.  The kids were standing up rocking out for a good half hour.  Certainly an experience to remember!

Each kid got awarded with a certificate and Ella got to pick a special DARE mascot stuffed animal because she along with multiple other students finished a pop challenge which was to not drink any pop for like 3 months.  We felt pretty proud of our Ella and dad took us all out for an ice cream to celebrate a drug free family.  ♥