Chess Club

Xander has been a member of the chess club at school for the last couple of years.  Steven volunteered every week last year and so Paizley tagged along with him.  She was super excited this year because she actually was able to be a member.  The last few weeks of the club they had a tournament with all the kids and then at the end they gave everyone trophies.

Paizley took 4th place in the Kindergarten division.  She was so excited.  She called me at work to tell me about it.  I told her I would look at her trophy when I got home she said "well make sure you keep in mind mine is bigger than Xander's"  She is quite the character.

Xander received a participation trophy.  I think it's great they are already looking forward to next year's club.

Siblings

I got a little behind last week because of month end and honestly I was super ornery about my car.  I did manage to get this photo.

I love how my kids enjoy doing things together.  I hope they always stay close.

Blue And Gold Banquet

When Xander turned 10 he moved into the Weeblos den in cub scouting.  This past Tuesday they had the Blue and Gold Banquet.  The theme was the wild west and they had different props that you could have your picture taken with on the saddle.

I practically couldn't drag Paizley off, she had her picture taken like 20 times.  She is such a ham.

I bribed Steven to get him on.

They had all the boys make wanted posters of themselves.  It was fun to walk around and find Xander's.

The Great Car Debackle

I had an appointment on Saturday to get the kid's pictures taken at a place in Spanish Fork, so I got everyone up and ready.  Steven decided to stay home because he had worked the night before and he jumps at the chance to sleep when no one is home to bother him.

I was almost to the exit that I needed to take and I noticed steam pouring out of my hood and my tempeture gage was rapidly moving toward the red.  I pulled over and waited about 5 minutes hoping the car would cool down.  I started it back up and drove slowly off the exit, but there was still a lot of steam coming from the hood so I pulled into the Cal-Ranch parking lot.  I got out and checked under the car and I could tell I had a major coolant leak. 

About a year and a half ago I noticed that some coolant had leaked on our driveway so I took it in to have the Volkswagen store look at it.  They told me that I had a small leak in a hose and it wasn't anything I needed to worry about because of the location it would be super expensive in labor to fix. 

I had a little trouble in the summer when we went to Tucson to visit Heidi.  When we were stopped at a light the engine temperature gage would creep up a little but when you started moving again it would go right back down.  I chalked it up to being low on coolant.

In December I took my car in to have the safety and emission test done so that I could renew my registration.  The tech that looked at my car told me that I didn't have a small hose leak after all, but that my water pump was going out.  Being told you have to spend $700 just before Christmas is always awesome news so I asked him if it could wait a little while.  He said I could wait until after the holidays but that I shouldn't wait too long. 

Of course I did wait too long which brings us back to the present.  I called the Ken Garff back up line and they sent out a tow truck and they took us back to the Volkswagen store.  The sales department gave me a car to drive for the rest of the weekend.  Once service got in and started looking at my car they realized I had also managed to crack the radiator so four days and $1100 later I again have a working Hyundai. 

Dose Of Cuteness

I'm just going to leave this tiny pile of cuteness here....

I came downstairs and Paizley was hand feeding Henley bunny pellets...so cute!

Xander Turns 10

I can't believe my boy is 10 already!  It makes me feel super old to have a child in the double digits.  Xander's birthday was technically Sunday but Grammy and Boppy came down from Idaho so we celebrated on Saturday. 

Xander has been so excited about his presents for weeks

The big thing at Saratoga Shores is this thing called a Kandama (I have no idea how to spell it). It's a wooden ball on a string that you catch on a stick with several cups.  He's actually getting pretty good already.

My parents got him a hat, scarf and the book for the Weeblos den in scouting.

 

He received three minecraft lego sets

 

I've stopped buying a fancy cake for birthdays because honestly no one in the house really likes cake.  Everyone eats a piece out of obligation and then 3/4 of the cake sits around going stale for the next two weeks until I finally throw it away.  The last couple of years I've been buying fancy cupcakes and they seem to go much better.  This year I tried out a new bakery in Orem called The Chocolate. 

 
I don't know if you can tell but Steven bought candles that have colored flame.  This one is blue.

For dinner we went to Xander's favorite restaurant Chilis.  The waitress we had was super irritating so we didn't tell her that it was Xander's birthday so he didn't get sung to.

Backwards Day

Today the kids had backwards day to show their spirit at school. 

Xander has his shirt on backwards

Paizley has her pants, shirt, vest and earrings on backwards.  She informed me she didn't want her underwear on backwards because in her words "cheeky hangy outy" I'm sure you can figure out what that means

Family Movie Night - Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure Edition

We usually have family home evening on Thursday night because it works better with Steven's sleep schedule.  I've always kind of hated coming up with an activity for everyone to do so a few months ago I changed the "activity" to movie night.   We still have a lesson, song, scripture and treat but then we take turns picking a movie to watch.  We have a rule that whatever movie is chosen for that week we have to watch it as a family with no complaining, I have seen Frozen once a month for the last six months.  Steven is adamant that our kids will not refuse to watch a movie simply because it is "old".

It was my turn this week and I chose one of my favorite movies Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.  Steven had the bright idea to host a pot luck at work on his day off so he had gone into Walmart at 2:00 am the night before and didn't come home until 4:30 (rolling eyes).  Needless to say Steven pretty much slept through the movie.  Xander enjoyed it and has been quoting it a little the next day and Paizley had no interest. 

I got to use my new popcorn maker that Paizley got me for Christmas

New Year's Resolutions

Yay I'm so excited to be caught up and for this new year, even though we are 3/4 through January already.  Steven and I had a long talk about what we wanted to get out of this year and how we were going to accomplish it.  Basically we are both tired of feeling like we are treading water and never getting on top of anything.  This year is going to be about getting control of our lives and making it better.

1. I'm going to keep this blog caught up.  I'm realizing that when I am so far behind I can't remember all the fun little things that happen not only everyday, but with the big events as well.

2.  Organize the house.  The basement and garage are the biggest offenders of being out of control.  we've made a good start on the basement.  Saturday mornings when Steven gets home from work we have been working on it for a couple of hours.  I lost my scrapbooking room to Paizley so we are setting up an area in the basement for me to keep all my stuff.

3.  Loose a crap ton of weight.  I love eating so much and the last couple of years have really taken it's toll.  I was doing pretty well before Christmas with my exercising and diet but then I lost control of it again.  My goal is one pound a week throughout the year.

4.  Get our temple recommends back.  It's been far too long since we have been to the temple.  We have been doing really well making it to church for the last two years.  I think this is the year to go the rest of the way.

5. Read at least three books as a family.  This was Steven's goal and has decided to start with The Little House in the Big Wood.  Paizley claims that she doesn't like reading chapter books but she seems to be getting into it. 

6. Get at least a three month supply of food storage and 72 hour kits.  We have been working on food storage a little the last couple of years but I really want to make it a focus and get a good system going.

I feel like I'm more committed this year to accomplishing my goals then I have been in the past.  I'm sure I'll be posting updates!

 

2014 Wrap Up

Ugg I'm so far behind on this blog it's not even funny.  I'm going to take a page out of my sister in law's book and do one mondo update post for the last half of 2014 and then I can start fresh and maybe stay caught up this time.

Fantasy Con:

Steven and I had decided against going to Fantasy Con because honestly three Cons in one year was just too much. But then I won tickets so we ended up going anyway, and I found that it was just so much better run then Comiccon that this will probably be the convention we support from now on.  Fan-ex and Comicon really seemed like a giant money grab to me, just throwing stuff at the wall to see what would stick and expecting people to pay absurd amounts of money.  You could tell at Fantasy Con that the organizers loved what they were doing and wanted everyone else to love it too.

The kids were in Idaho this week so they didn't get to go and Xander is still complaining about it. 

Steven got to try on this custom leather armor and now he thinks he needs to spend $900 and get some.

 

The Kids Get Their Own Rooms:

 

We decided that it was probably time for Xander and Paizley to stop sharing a room.  I boxed up all my scrapbooking stuff and started painting away. 

 

I did this paisley boarder around the top of the wall

Paizley helping put together her bed

Paizley loves her room

 

Taking the Winne the Pooh boarder off

Repainting

Xander's new room

 

 

Gymnastics Recital:

 

 

The kids had a recital for their gymnastics class.  It was fun for them to show off the skills they had learned in the past year.  After the recital they actually moved Xander from the beginner boy class to the preteam class so I was super proud of him.



 

 First Day of School:

Xander started 4th grade this year

Paizley started Kindergarten

Felix just loves anything she can lay on

 

 

 

Frightmares

 

We haven't been to Lagoon in a couple of years so we decided to go to Frightmares this year.  Paizley is becoming more of a dare devil and wants to go on everything and is ticked because her size makes that difficult

 

 

 

 

Halloween:

 

Xander was a strom trooper and Paizley was a lady bug

Paizley at the school parade

Paizley going to her first house.  Xander is of course at that magical age where he would rather go with his friends then with his parents

I didn't get my phone out in time but this guy went past us as the headless horseman.

 

 

Birthdays:

 

We had three birthdays in the last half of the year

 

Steven turned 38

Paizley turned 6

And I turned 34

Heidi came to visit:

Heidi and I decided to surprise everyone and she flew up for a few days in the beginning of November.  We had fun going to the new aquarium, the cheesecake factory and just being together

 

Aquarium 2 revenge of the goat:

 

Hailey and Zach ended up coming to our house for Thanksgiving so we went to the aquarium again with them

 

Paizley met Santa for the first time.  She was way more excited then I thought she would be



Christmas:

We had a great Christmas this year.  We celebrated in Preston at Hailey's house.  Ryan surprised everyone by driving down from Seattle.

Overall it was a great year for us.