Raegan Drawing

Last year came to a close, also meant baptism pictures came down ready for the next batch to go up.  So Raegan was given her picture, and during sacrament meeting she told me she wanted to draw herself.  It has been at least 17 yrs since I've taken drawing classes so I did my best to help her out.  Remember this is a hymn book and a family of 7 squeezed on the pew for movement.  She did awesome...ok, I ended up doing most of it, and remembered how much I missed it.  But I hope it gave her a taste of how fun it can be to see things as shapes, lines and shades...

Jarom Science Fair Project

Oh the joys of science fair projects.  Rian has done her share, now Jarom is in full swing.  Luckily, this was a pretty easy, yet fun experiment.  He worked on Transpiration in plants.  He used celery and carnations to demonstration the flow of water with colored water.  It was pretty cool.

He had two experiments to prove his hypothesis.  Experiment A was water evaporating out of stomata on the leaves, and Experiement B was the pathway water took up the plants.

Experiment A

Not too many green leafy plants around, but we tried this one from a bush out front.  We had to let it acclimate for a few hours before starting...  Putting one bag of leaves in darkness (cupboard) and one in sunlight (window sill) you see results of evaporation from the leaves stomata from sunlight.

Experiement B

Celery and carnations in their red and blue water in sunlight...results turned out ok, but with colder temps outside and less sun peaking out of the clouds, I'm sure things could have been more prominent. Carnations were cool with the blue stripes...red needed more time or sunshine/warmth to really show anything.

Celery did well.  You could see where the water exited the stomata (pores) and left the color behind, making clusters of color.  Cutting open the celery you could see the pathway up the stalks.

Although these projects can be a pain to complete because they have to be a certain way (we are now professionals at this) it was neat to see it all come together.  Nice to have it checked off the list...Good Job Jay.

Happy New Year of 2013

For Christmas we got a game our neighbors introduced us to, Ticket To Ride--Europe.  We really liked this game.  For New Years Eve, I taught it to all of my kids.  It's a complicated game, but I was impressed with how well several of them picked up on it.  It took awhile to play, which was perfect for this night.

We counted down to midnight and enjoyed sparkling cider and treats!  Gave all my kiddos a smooch on the check...even Leona got a few smooches from the kids, then called it a night.

Next morning...

This beautiful sunrise graced us with it's glory.  It has snowed every morning since Christmas...so even though a few flurries still allowed us to shovel the walks, this beauty is what makes it all worth it.  Happy New Year.  A great beginning.

I could name my 'goals' but really, I practically live day to day just getting through kids projects, and achievements, and hopefully remembering to do something for myself now and then.

This is what we saw this morning...kids decided to store it in the freezer.  Don't know why, another has already started to form...

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Tarin's Santa gift for Christmas was a cat.  She had gotten all the "goodies" like cat litter, toys and such on Christmas day, and the next day we went and let her pick out the cat of her choice.  She was so excited!  It was priceless to see her excitement.

Leona was the cat for our family.  She is 1 1/2 yrs old and good around kids, house trained and such a beauty.

As you can see she is our explorer.  The shelter mentioned it could take up to 2 wks for her to adjust to our house, but by that same evening, she came out of the laundry room to hang out with all of us.  Her favorites are drawers--climbing behind them--and mom and dads closet.  She is a real sweetie.

Christmas Time

Christmas Eve 2012 we had my brother Jeff and his family and my sister Tana and her family over.  It's so nice to get together with family.  This is what I love about the holidays.

We had a great dinner together and nativity program.  So cute to see these guys altogether.

Then afterwards, we had PJ's and ornaments to open.  Also the kids loved having Secret Santa gifts to each other.  That was a real treat to Ammon this year.  He's fully aware of how things work now.

       Ammon's train ornament                             Jarom's BYU football player ornament               Raegan's fashionista ornament

                         Rian's soccer ornament                                      Tarin's snow globe ornament 

A beautiful Christmas Morning.  Snowed all day yesterday, but today was sunshine and winter wonderland.

Kids traditionally sleep all in one room Christmas Eve, and know that they can't come get us until 7am.  This is what they saw this morning.

After all the fun of gifts, we skyped with my parents in Ghana, Africa.  It was good to talk with them and see their faces.  We love them and cheer them on.

Afternoon was the time we headed over to Gma and Gpa Wardwell's house for food, fun and hanging out.  Gma came up with this brilliant idea to tie the sleds to the ATV's.  The kids LOVED it!  It was a lot of fun.  Cold and wet when they got off, but they wanted more....Ammon was so cute holding on and not wanting to let anyone else have a turn.

I had fun on the other ATV from Gpa, dragging the cousins around.  I like swinging them around and doing little jumps.

Rian                                                             Jarom

Raegan was so adorable.

Tarin is my little snow bunny!

Seriously, family is the greatest gift of life.  We love you all and thank you for so many fun and memorable experiences.  Merry Christmas!

Nativity Sunday

I team teach the CTR 4 class in Primary. This was a very special day. The kids had the chance to act out the nativity. Of course there favorite part was dressing up. But I know they enjoyed learning about our Savior Jesus Christ.

Baylie Olsen was Mary and Molly Gygi was the Angel and Preston Crawley was a shepherd 

All together...Molly Gygi, Leah Wood, Kaeden Giles, Tyler Finch, Sawyer Ramey, Baylie Olsen, Allissa Laing, and Preston Crawley.  Missing Coba Shaw and Stratton Gormley

These were the gifts I had given to the class.  The ornaments were so easy and fun to make and I think they turned out really well.  I also made tie tacks for the boys and hair clippies for the girls for bringing their scriptures to church for the last few months.  They did a great job and I loved teaching them.  Who know where next year will take me in Primary.

Salt Lake Temple Square

 A cold, but beautiful night.  The three younger kids have never seen this temple except in pictures.  So this was pretty cool for them. 

 

Ammon and one of his many faces.  

Told our kids about this tabernacle, that conferences use to be held there.  Of course that just reinforces how old we are getting...according to our teenager. 

 Loved this reflection pool

Getting warm in the visitor center.

Snow! Snow! and More Snow!

 We have had two dumpling's of snow in the past 5 days.  Monday wasn't good packing snow and harder for me to shovel off (after everyone walked all over it and made it "one" with the sidewalk).  Last night it dumped excellent packing snow for snow forts and sledding (easier to shovel).

Heritage Park

Our neighbors, the Browns, have been so great taking our kids and other neighbor kids to the nearby park to go sledding.  Here is the bunch that went today!

Tarin and Abby were trying to find creative ways to head down the hill...

Always had to climb back up...

Rian

Tarin my little snow bunny

Raegan and Elizabeth making their mark...poor Elizabeth had wet boots and thought barefoot would be better...

Joseph Brown attempting to snowboard down...looks pretty good, til about halfway down...

Abby and Noelle were really funny trying to stay on the board.

More snow forecasted over the next few days...hope I can survive.