{Little Weekend Getaway to Grandma & Grandpa's House}

Before Christmas, we went down to Ephraim to spend a few a days at Grandma and Grandpa's house. The kids always look forward to going down, because they have free reign over my mom's house. They call her office "the workshop" because she has every gadget, tool, device to use to do/make whatever you could dream up. So every morning I wake up, I can hear them all in there playing some cute game: office, school, the North Pole. I think they usually waste an entire roll of that white paper used in the old electronic calculators. She has two in that office that get used continuously when we come to visit. The kids would stay inside Grandma's house all day if they had their preference, so we had to "drag" them out to go do some things that ended up being so memorable. In town, the city has an enormous mailbox for letters to Santa, so they all wrote Santa one last letter, and we went and mailed them. We also drove into Mt Pleasant one night to see the live nativity they put on every year. It really is SO well done. It's a silent tour, and you are walking through the streets of Bethlehem looking at all the old carpenter shops and markets (people dressed in character walking right by you). Then at the end of the little street you see the Inn where people are being turned away, and then you arrive at an old stable where you are allowed to walk in and look at "Baby Jesus" (which is an actual baby). Then treats and hot chocolate at the end of the tour. It's so worth going to see. I want to take them every year. The spirit can be felt so strongly there. Both nights the kids wanted to sleep on the floor in the living room by the tree.

Ava is 6!!!!

Happy Birthday to my sweet, little Ava Noel. She is such a light in our lives, and we love her so much. I love having a daughter like her, always helping me with Elle and Will, always the peacemaker when the kids are starting to fight, always cheerful in the morning and when she walks in the door after school. She means so much to us. Happy Birthday!


Ava wanted to have a family party (which I just love when they choose that...not because it means less work for me, but I love knowing they want to spend their special day with just us/family). We blind folded her at home, and didn't tell her what we had planned. Her favorite restaurant is Brick Oven, so that's where we went. Andy was waiting there with a cake and presents.

She was SOOO surprised when we pulled off the blindfold. It was the cutest thing ever!

She loved all of the presents she got. Grandma Stratford gave her a barbie, coloring pad, and took her shopping and to lunch at the mall. Elder & Sister Hokanson (Grandma & Grandpa) mailed her a jewelry box, snow globe, treats, lip glosses. Cael and Will gave her a sparkly purse and a microphone with a speaker.


Elle kept a close eye on that cake. She couldn't wait to get a piece!



After dinner, she and I raced down to American Leadership Academy, where Emma and Shelle' go to school, to watch them sing/dance in their Christmas production. They did awesome, and Ava sat through the entire 2 1/2 hr. show, and loved all of it. She looks up to her cousins so much.

Happy Birthday, Ava! We are so happy you came into our family 6 years ago!
P.S....and even though Cael loves to tease you that you were adopted, and has all sorts of stories of how we actually got you...don't believe him :). I remember having you in my tummy, and being so excited I was going to get a baby girl. You are mine, and always will be. I love you!

Lake Powell

Andy and I went on a little 3 day trip to Lake Powell sans kids...which was a little weird going there without them, because they love it so much...but I got over the weirdness pretty quick. We took long boat rides, played on the jet skis, ate dinner at the marina, did some awesome hikes, watched movies in the houseboat, read and relaxed. We went with Will & Tracy, the Nybergs and the Campbells.

Andy always forgets to bring his sunglasses, and always wants to borrow mine.

Andy and Will

Andy jumped in to show us how deep one of the cracks can be. SCARY!

The rest of the crew


Andy and Eric tried to body surf together. One of the funniest things ever. We were all crying we were laughing so hard!

The Tooth Fairy was a "No-Show"...

Last night, Andy pulled out one of Cael's front teeth. He's lost 6 now. He's always so brave to let Andy do it, even though he does get quite scared before. So, they got it out, we all went to Sonic for ice cream after our FHE lesson, then Cael put his tooth in a baggy and put it under his pillow. After dealing with all the kids, and cleaning up before I went to bed, I completely forgot to go put a dollar in the tooth's place. Uh-oh. Cael was so sad this morning when he woke up to see his tooth still there. What bad parents we are. I felt so bad. While he was in the bathroom, I quickly put a dollar into the crack of his mattress and bed frame, and then told him to come look a little harder to see if he might have missed the money somehow. Once he found the dollar I had hid, he said, "oh, this is just the 'pink' dollar that I must have dropped here last week"...I guess the one I hid was actually Ava's, which does have pink nail polish swipes on the back of it, and so it's pretty recognizable. I had to just leave the room instead of trying to make up another story, because I couldn't help smile about how this situation wasn't getting resolved, and how observant my kids are, aaAAAaand how my plan B failed. So then Andy steps in and fixed it all by telling Cael that sometimes the tooth fairy can't get to some kids the night their teeth come out, and that sometimes she comes a day later. He was fine with that explanation and placed the tooth back under his pillow, and was able to go to school happily. I'm actually kind of hoping one of his friends breaks the news to him about the tooth fairy, because he's starting to think she's a real flake!

SGM

So, I did it. I ran the St. George Marathon last week, and it was quite the experience. It was one of my New Year's Resolutions and so I had to follow through with it. Anyone who was with me soon after I finished heard me say, "I'll never do that again", but, I'm totally disregarding how hard it was, and am currently planning out my next year, and will soon be signing up for another one...I guess it's kind of like having a baby, you just forget how bad it hurts, and that's why we can do it over and over again. As good as it feels to be done, I am so disappointed with my time...I finished in 4:17 (which isn't great, it's like a 9:48 average pace or something). I finished my half-marathon in 1:49, and so my plan (and I was on track until mile 16) was to finish around 3:50. I was able to hang with the 3:45 pace guy up until this huge downhill section, and then instantly after we finished mile 15, my IT band in my left knee started hurting SOOO bad. I knew I was in big trouble. Soon after that my right knee started giving me the same problem. I never really trained on any down hills, and I keep hearing that's why my knees were giving me problems. So needless to say, I slowly started to increase the gap between myself and the pace guy, who's back I'd been staring at for the past two hours. At that point it hurt so bad I could just get up enough motivation to run a mile and then walk a few minutes, run another mile, then walk a few minutes. It was just as hard on me mentally, knowing I was going to be so far behind the time I was aiming for, and had so diligently trained for. I could've cried so many times...and actually did break down to Andy at the finish line. It was amazing to me how many people needed medical attention throughout the course, and how many ambulances would come speeding by me, taking people to the hospital. Apparently it was considered a hot day compared to past years. It was a pretty surreal experience running through the finish line, having so many people cheering for me, but at the same time being in so much pain, and feeling disconnected from my body. Maybe these are all thoughts and complaints of a first-time marathoner, I don't know...that's why I need to try it again to see if I can overcome all of these obstacles. Anyway, it was so fun to see Andy and the kids at the end. I was so glad to be done. I could barely walk down the stairs for the next few days, due to my knees, but the sore muscles I had, sort of felt good. It was definitely one of the hardest things I've done, but I think I'm hooked and can't wait to do another one.

{The Cabin }

We had to head up to the cabin one last time before Winter. Scott, Brittany, and Shelby came up, and so did Jeff. We had a lot of fun hanging out.

{School Breakfast }

Most elementary schools offer breakfast before school starts, to kids whose parents work, or for low income families. I just got an e-mail telling me that Cael's lunch account needed to be replenished, which should've lasted him till at least the end of the month...So I started talking with Cael yesterday and he told me that some mornings he and Ava get off the bus, he walks her to her kindergarten class, and then he heads to the lunchroom to eat breakfast. He always eats breakfast here, so it's not like he needs to eat at school, but they offer some of the sweeter cereals that I won't buy, so he said it is awesome. He picked Cocoa Puffs yesterday. Anyway, I thought it was so funny that he thought he was just eating for free there, and even more funny that he would ditch Ava so he could go enjoy breakfast by himself. Their bus gets to school about 25 minutes before school starts, so that's quite awhile for her to just be sitting at her desk doing nothing. After I explained to Cael that it isn't free, and that if I do let him eat there sometimes, he has to take Ava, he agreed to not do it anymore until I give him permission.

{Trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house and cabin}

Andy went on a camp out to Moab with the Priests, so the kids and I went on a little vacation down to Ephraim. I'm starting to really love all of the little towns in Sanpete County, they are all so humble and cute. They remind me a lot of the area that Andy grew up in, up in Wyoming. So I look forward to anytime we get to go down and visit. We went to the Manti temple grounds, and then got some ice cream. Grandma bought Will some little six shooters to go along with his cowboy outfit, which he's kind of into right now. Cael got a Star Wars light saber fighting stick, and Ava picked out a little purse. After we stayed at their house for a few days, we went up to the cabin. The kids had such a great time hiking, swimming, making smore's.

{Easter }

The kids came home from church to find that the Easter Bunny had left a trail of eggs to their hidden baskets. After they found them, they went and looked for all of the other candy filled eggs that were hidden around the house. They got a few new things in their baskets and some more treats. In the past, I've been known to go a little overboard with the baskets...toys, movies, clothes, games, and candy galore...but Andy is continually teaching me that the kids don't need so much "stuff". He was right. They got just as excited about the two things they found in their baskets, as compared to the ten things I usually do. It was a great Easter.

{Cael's BYU Birthday Party }

{Cael's Baptism }

It turned out to be such a special day for Cael. He had so many family members, primary teachers, and friends show up to support him. I especially loved that he was the only child getting baptized from the ward that day, so the entire program was tailored to him. Uncle Mike and Grandma Stratford gave talks on baptism and the Holy Ghost, and they were able to speak directly to Cael the whole time. All the girl cousins and Ava sang a beautiful song, and then Ava did her own little musical number that she has been practicing for months. It was so hard to contain my emotions the whole time. Cael really understood the importance of the day, and he made me so proud to be his mom. He loves his primary teacher, Sis. Jenn Carr, and so it meant so much that she would come. Grant & Tara and kids were there too, but left right when it was over because Tara was helping with the food. We had brunch following the service. It was so fun to visit with everyone. Cael had such a great day.