Christmas 2010

All December I have been denying that Christmas time was here. November was crazy with my Dad's wedding, Thanksgiving, and wonderful snow days. This set us back in anticipation of the Christmas spirit. We put up our Christmas tree and Katelyn decorated the house with the Christmas decorations while she was home sick from church. The kids enjoyed the tree and the lights. The 17th started our school break this year because of budget cuts. Shawn and I's anniversary was also the 17th. We have been married 16 years. We decided to go away for the night to Utah. I thought for sure I would get my shopping done. The roads were nasty on the way down. We enjoyed being together. We went shopping Saturday, but I did not have the shopping mojo. We came away with a calendar and book. I felt awful about not getting any shopping done but my wise husband said," We are not here to go shopping, we are here to enjoy each other." We enjoyed driving around looking for things until it was time to come home to the kids Saturday night. Monday morning I went to the dentist and went shopping most of the day. We went up to Rock Creek to see the lights and feed the camel. Tuesday was cooking day. We made apple pies, sugar cookies, chex mix, and dipped pretzels. The rest of the week we hung out with each other and with friends. Thursday night, Shawn and I went back out looking but came away empty handed again for my birthday present. Christmas Eve we went to my brother's Blake for a wonderful night of soup and sparkling cider. We read the Navity Scene and knew we need to get on the road for Santa would soon be there, but just enjoyed visiting it was hard to leave.
With the kids off to bed, Mom and Dad finished setting out our presents and were about to go to bed when my three sisters called at midnight to wish me Happy Birthday. That was so sweet and made me feel very special. We talked to long, but needed to hurry because who know who was coming soon. We had moved the kid's present opening time to 6:30 this year and they were ready on the nose. Has always the present opening time goes to quick for the time put in to prepare. The kids enjoyed playing and looking at their new toys. The girls had gotten new Wii games from Santa so they went right to town playing them all morning. Brady loved coloring in his new coloring book and Garret watched some new Pokemon movies Santa brought him. Later that afternoon we headed to Grandma Peterson's to enjoy a wonderful Christmas dinner. I love spending time with our families. It was nice to realize that we got a whole another week off of school. We relaxed and played with our Christmas toys. I got Brady his quilt top made.
New Year's Eve we hung out with the Bronsons. We ate Chinese food and pizza. The kids played Wii games and the adults played Wackee Six(which I brought for our New Year's Eve game) Fun Game- once I remembered how to play. We went home way too late and slept in a little. Shawn was going to go riding motorcycles all day, but the weather prevented him from doing so. We enjoyed our traditional breakfast at the Stokers.
I can't believe another year has come and gone. I know I wish sometimes time would speed up and other times I want it to slow down, but it seems to be moving quickier than ever. Hopefully in 2011, we can try harder to be kinder and more loving to everyone around us(brothers and sisters included. We love you all and hope your Christmas season was spent together.

Seven years old

Garret turned seven on December 7th. I took him to the store the Friday night before his birthday so he could show me what he wanted for his birthday. Needless to say he wanted everything would be an understatement. Last year he was into Pokemon for about 6 months and then that phase was gone. I was happy that it only lasted 6 months. Well, it's back! He wanted Pokemon games and cards. He wanted to take mini cupcakes to class. He wanted hamburgers sliders and french fries for birthday dinner. I always give my kids breakfast in bed, but I had forgotten to ask Garret what he wanted for breakfast. After we sang to him, he stayed in bed and stayed in bed. I finally asked him what he was doing and he said,"I am waiting for breakfast." Oops! So I quickly grabbed cereal and gave him breakfast in bed. He had a wonderful day at school. We came home and got dinner ready. Grandpa Manwaring and Grandma Ginnie came for dinner. We had hamburgers and french fries. He opened his presents on Pokemon Soul Silver and more Pokemon cards. Next year Garret turns 8 years old. Time flys when you are having fun. I enjoy Garret very much. He is an enjoyable child to have around. He is very active and quite athletic. He loves his brother and sisters.(most of the time) He can be dramatic(thanks to older sister). We will continue to work hard to teach you what is right and to let you know everyday we love you. We hope that you will listen and know what we teach you to be true. Happy Birthday Garret!

New additions for the Manwaring Family

Well, we knew that this time would come when my Dad would find someone to remarry. He found a wonderful lady named Virginia who he knew years ago in Canada. She had recently returned from a mission in Africa when he made contact. They agreed to meet in Vancouver, Canada and over a week's time visited and enjoyed each other's company. He then annouced that they were getting married two weeks later. So on November 20th they were married in the Twin Falls temple. It is quite a surreal time I am sure for everyone. She has two daughters Lisa and Lynn. We enjoyed meeting them and hope to know them better in the near future. We will be able to spend Thanksgiving with my Dad and Virginia getting to know her better. I am glad that my Dad has found someone to be happy with.

Calling the Tooth Fairy

That long awaited day in a child's life when they finally lose their first tooth as arrived for Garret. He finally had a loose tooth and he wiggled it and wiggled it. We were reading together one night 2 weeks ago and he said, "Wiggle my tooth after each page that I read." So I did. We worked it over pretty well. He was afraid that he would lose it during P.E. the next day, but he came home with it still in his mouth. I had to leave to help out at my Dad's for the night and so I asked if he wanted me to try one pull. So out came the toilet paper and out came the tooth. He was very excited for the tooth fairy to come. I asked,"How much do you think the tooth is worth?" Garret replied,"I think 12 dollars." He finally settled on 4 dollars. How much did the tooth fairy give him you ask? 1 dollar. That is the standard protocol for the tooth fairy, I say. (Notice Katelyn is the background. She also lost a tooth the week before.)

That's a boy for you!

It's a good thing girls dig scars on boys, because our boys will have plenty. Garret had a hard couple of weeks with getting banged up. He scalped part of his forehead at Uncle Blake's house swinging. Then a week later, while I was at mutual the boys took a ride on the four-wheeler with Dad. Which is always a wild ride!( I took the boys for a ride and they informed me that I am a stinky driver and they wanted their dad back.I guess I am not wild enough.)I got home from mutual with Shawn telling me they had a small accident. Garret had let go of the handle bars and hit his head on the key. I tried to wake Garret up and check his head but he would not budge. He kept fighting me when I tried to take off his band-aid. So I decided to wait until morning to look at it. When he woke up and I checked it out, I decided that he probably would have benefited from stitches. One call later to sister-in-law Josie informing me stitches were probably too late, I butterflied it together and off we went to school. It satyed together pretty well, but a scar will be the result of too much rough riding with Dad.

Family Pictures 2010

We had our family pictures taken by a friend in our ward Melanie Nebeker who is trying to get her photography business up and running. We were in a rush to get them done before she started harvest, so we picked to go after school one evening in September. We had them taken down at the local park. Everyone decided they would cooperate except for Brady. He smiled for maybe one picture out of the whole thing. Our family is always working on something. Oh well! The kids all wanted their own photo taken, so Melanie ended up taking alot of pictures of the kids.

Halloween 2010

Halloween was a four day event around here. I wanted to have a family Halloween party and invite a few friends over. So the Friday before Halloween we planned to have the party, but in the middle of the night Brady woke up sick and ruined everything.(The kids were upset) We quickly rescheulded for Saturday night. We enjoyed spaghetti,bone breadsticks, green leafy things, mummy dogs, and dirt pudding. We played games like eating donuts off a string, pass the pumpkin, freeze dance, and Halloween pictionary.
Blakely had her school Halloween party and dance on Wednesday. She dressed up as batwoman. She recycled Garret's batman costume which he had wore into holes. Which was made for cousin Josh by Aunt Beth. She enjoyed the dance and was excited to hang out with friends.
Thursday was our school's Halloween parade and party. Katelyn was going to be Kit, American girl, but decided to be a prom queen. Even though I stayed up late finishing a skirt for her. She decided to wear this costume to our ward's Halloween party Firday night. Garret decide to be a black ninja which I recycled his Darth Vadar costume to make. He just looked like a boy dressed up in a black costume. Brady was dressed as Woody. He had party at Christy's house. He trick or treated and made a pumpkin head. Friday night we had our ward carnival and trunk or treat. The kids played games, ate soup and cinnamon rolls, and got lots of candy. Katelyn did finally dress up as Kit. Blakely decided with friends to be a painter,a painting, and the rich lady who buys the painting. Interesting! They came home and traded candy. I always ask myself the question do I ration the candy or just get it gone. becky-.it was a fun halloween like all of them. i love tootsie rolls.- katelyn

Drops 2010

Looking at my camera, I noticed that I hadn't blogged about our trip to the Drops this year. Last year when we went I took the kids by myself. Thankfully Shawn came with us. I don't know if it was still the safety talk from Uncle Blake last year or just my anxiety getting the best of me, but my anxiety level was to the freaking out level when we got there. I finally jumped in with Shawn and Garret. By the time I got I had calmed down a little. Then we decided to take Brady down, it rose a little, but when my Dad said he was going down it went back to the freaking out level again. We all jumped in several more times and slowly my anxiety level mellowed out. At the end of the night the older cousins decided to jump off the cliffs right after the rapid section. Uncle Blake and Uncle Brian jumped in with them thankfully. They would have continued to jump in if we would have not called it a night. We returned to the Shoshone church parking lot and had a nice picnic with the family before saying good night.

School 2010-2011

No matter what we do, time does not slow down. So school is here again. I started at the beginning of August in my classroom trying to put it together. I headed to Boise for meetings for a team I am on. It was weird being by myself(staying at a hotel by myself, eating myself,etc.)Actually it was nice at times.
This school year we start with 8 less days because of budget cuts. I had a full week of meetings before the kids started to school. School started Sept. 30th. Blakely is now in 8th grade and loves everything about school. This year she gets to be an librarian aidefor the first semester. Katelyn is in 5th grade and in Ms. Matthews. Katelyn started out the year next to my classroom, because her classroom wasn't finished being built yet. She of course loves school and loves that Bekha is in her class. Garret is in 1st grade and has Mrs. Haugeberg. He loves school, but has to be threatened to get all his homework done. He already has been kicked out of his mom's classroom when I walked in to my class and he was handed out peppermint candies to all my students.(I keep peppermint candies in clase of upset tummies) Brady is being watched by another wonderful lady named Christy. He loves it there even though the week before school started I kept telling him that it was school time again and he was going to a new babysitter. He would say I not going, she has no babies. Turns out she has 2 babies that come and some of his friends from Tara's also come. He seems to enjoy being there. I also teach Christy's daughter. I have 22 students; 14 of them being boys. I think it will be a good year. I don't like the extra stress in my life, but we will fake it till we get it. We did start out the year with three out four children with ear infections. Once again, Shawn has to step up and help take my place and take kids to the doctor. Which he had to wait a hour to see the doctor with kids being silly in the room. Which I replied been there, done that. He takes up the extra slack beautifully. I sure love him for that. I hope we have a great year and very little sickness. Go Declo!!!

5K with the girls

I have wanted to try a 5K for about a year now. So I talked and bribed the girls into doing one in Declo over Labor Day weekend. I started running one minute and walking two minutes; now I know some of you are running experts,but this was my training. The girls didn't want to train as well. Blakely said I wouldn't have signed for this if I knew I had to train. So with some pushing we got a few runs with each other. My favorite saying was "You are not going to let your 34 year old mother beat you, are you?" One night running a coyote ran right out in front of us running away from our dogs. I then proceded to tell Blakely that the momma coyote was probably not far behind so she better start running fast. I said you only have to run faster then the slowest person. I know not nice. Saturday we got up and headed to Declo and got our shirts and took off running. Katelyn had found a friend to run with. So it was just Blakely and I running and walking together. Mom coaxed and encouraged. We pulled each other along. I ran back and got Blakely and walked with her. I loved doing the 5K. I will try and keep running so I can find another 5K and do it. (I have only ran twice this week:( Blakely vows not to do it again, but maybe I can get a friend to run with her she would change her mind!

Yellowstone

One of my goals for the summer was for our family to go somewhere together. As the summer dwindled down; it was now or never. We had decided to go to Yellowstone. We had just put carpet in our livingrooms and were preparing to put carpet in the bedrooms, so amiss the mess we left Saturday morning. After too many stops we got up to West Yellowstone in the afternoon. We checked into our hotel; which on seeing the swimming pool with the water slide the kids only wanted to stay there. We headed in the gate and headed up to Mammoth Springs. We stopped to see the hot spots along the way. We did see some elk and one moesing buffalo headed somewhere down the middle of the road. As the day wore on the kids desire for the swimming pool grew greater. We looped around and by the time we got back it was 9:00pm. So in a very hurried manner, we ran off to the swimming pool. We swam until closing. The kids and I found some dinner and returned to the hotel room to eat. Sleeping wasn't too bad, but I have discovered it is time for two rooms. We got up and got ready for church. Church in West Yellowstone has a lot of visitors has you can imagine. We then headed back into the park for the south loop. Being the smart parent I am to not have the fussing of Saturday night, I bribed. If they could not fuss; when we got to Old Faithful we would buy a pop for them. For the most of the children, it worked. Sunday we enjoyed stopping and wading through a stream. We loved walking the Old Faithful loop and seeing the tail end of her explosive show. We stopped by Yellowstone Lake and dipped our toes(some of us dipped our bodies). We drove out through the Grand Targhee Park and as we left low and behold there it was.... A Bear. We slowly drove past and gawked like all the other tourists as the park rangers directed traffic. We enjoyed the beauty of the Grand Targhee mountains and quickly drove through Jackson Hole. I finally got to see the Palisade Resvoir(which Shawn always talks about). We decided it would be fun next year to take Grandpa's boat(if he would let us) and go camping up at Palisades. We finished our vacation race through Idaho Falls and home at 10 o'clock at night. I enjoy this time together even how short it was and wish for opportunities for family get aways.

washington trip by Blakley

I went up to Washington with grandpa a couple of weeks ago. grandpa was going up to meet Uncle Brad & Breck so they could go fishing in Cananda. I stayed with Aunt Vicki & Uncle Scott's family for about two weeks. We got there Wednesday evening. I had brought up all of the Harry Potter movies cause I knew Dallin liked them our goal for the time I was there was to watch all of them. We started the first one but i was so tired i fell asleep within the first 5 mins. We finished it the next morning. That day we really didn't do anything. grandpa and Brad &breck left early the next morning. That afternoon Alyssa came back from girls camp. the next day was Saturday . We went swimming and then dropped Dallin off at the house & did a little shopping.We went to Plato's closet & Old Navy. On sunday we went to church then had a delicious dinner. MOnday Aunt Vicki dropped Alyssa & I at the mall we ate lunch first. Alyssa introduced me to thai food. niether of us finished so we carried it in boxes around the stores. the first store we went to was bath & body we had fun trying on the lipglosses & deceided to come back a buy them if we had enough money after all the other stores.Next alyssa wanted to find a scarf so we went into this wierd store called Fuego where she bought a pink peace sign shirt. We then went to american eagle wich was having their big sale.we both found cute shirts but then found out they were not actually on sale.Then we ran into aero which was also having a sale i got a dress there for 12 bucks.we then went to romy and charlie ruse we got matching shirts for 5 bucks there then we took a break and got some smoothies from jamba juice. then we went back to b&b and i got lipgloss and bodyspray. we then walked over to target to look around . finally we called Vicki to pick us up .it was a long day.the next few days we just kinda watched tv and movies and had a belated friends party for Dallin at the pool. Friday grandpa and them got back all of us cousins slept in the livingroom. we watched percy jackson and then breck dallin and I stayed up until about 3 in the morning.the next day we went to the space needle nd got to go to the o deck.brad and breck left at about 10 oclock to catch their 1oclock flight back to kentucky. Grandpa and I left monday morning and got to his house at about 9 we waited for my parents to get there. I finally got home at about 11pm.

Swimming Lessons 10

Swimming Lessons had one less child this year. Blakely felt like she was a good enough swimmer to not take lessons. I reluclately agreed, because it was now time for Brady to start taking them. Brady loves the water and is a fish, but that first day he cried almost the whole time he was in the water. The teacher suggested that I not be in the pool area. So I stayed out the rest of the week.By the end of the week he loved it as you can see. The other kids swam well and practiced diving. My kids love the water. Great job Katelyn, Garret, and Brady.

Scout Family Fishing Night

Every year our ward as a family fishing night. This year we went because Shawn is helping with the Wolves. We took our cousins Ethan, Ayva, and Ry with us since they were staying with Grandma. Ever since the Father and Son's Overnighter, Garret has wanted to fish more. He asks everytime he sees water, "Can we fish there?" Shawn had to go buy fishing poles since we are such avid fishers. We ended up going to Emerald Lake. Shawn spent the whole evening putting on worms and casting the line out. Each family member wanted to fish all night long. We caught fish, but all were too small to keep. Ethan and Garret caught the most fish. Ayva was the worm keeper. She played with the worms all night long. So being the good aunt I am I told her of course she could take them to Grandma's.(Grandma loved that!)Our family was the last family there. We fished until the sun was setting. We will have to fish again really soon. The only person caught by a hook amazingly enough was Blakely's friend Alysha.