Eight is Great

My Garret is now eight. The age of accountability. The age he gets to start making decisions that will affect the rest of his life. Too heavy..... He is such a fun little boy. He is full of sometimes too much energy especially when he is jumping onto your back. He is great a t tumbling and if I felt like I had more time I think I would put him into a tumbling class. He wears his heart on his sleeve. All you have to do is look at his face and you know exactly how he is feeling. He starts cub scouts and I get to be his leader. He has been coming with me to scouts since Sept. when I got put in. He also gets baptized in January. He even gets a birthday party with friends. I keep trying to celebrate the kids' birthday on the weekend, because it is so hard during the week, but I have a hard time with it. Grandpa and Grandma Ginnie had dinner with us on his birthday and then he had friends at the church playing games on Friday, and then had Grandma and Grandpa Peterson over on Sunday for dinner. He celebrated all week long.
For his friend's party we borrowed the church gym and played relay games for a couple of hours. No one wanted cake or ice cream because they were too busy playing games. I was worried about keeping the boys busy but they had a fun time.
Heavenly Father thought to send Garret to our home. He knew I needed a fun little boy to keep us on our toes and we figured out how to raise a boy. I have been preaching alot about self- control to Garret lately and I am sure I will continue. I am telling him that to be a good missionary he has to master his emotions and control, because I know he will success as a missionary.

Christmas 2011

Once again the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas break goes so fast. I enjoy having one week off before Christmas and one week off after Christmas. I don't think that will happen next year:(
I love just being home because we never are anymore. Why is that? We h ung out at home and had friends over. Blakely had her first boy/girl party. It was fun except too many younger siblings and no place to put Dad. Dad was banished to Katelyn's room to watch TV. He does not like that.
Shawn and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary. I have almost been with Shawn longer than I was with my parents. We decided to stay close to home and send the kids over to Grandma's while we enjoyed a quiet house. I am truly married to a great man.
We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner with Blake and Josie's family. I love to get together with their family. The kids enjoy each other and we visit too late especially on Christmas Eve. Soup, crackers, carrots, rolls, and sparkling apple cider. The kids always opening pajamas or something related to sleeping.
Christmas morning as usual was sending kids back to bed until 6:30 am. We decided to let the kids open presents before church. Shawn did have to be at the church for a quick meeting before sacrament and we met him at the church. We hurried home and gathered our contribution to Christmas dinner. It is always great to go to Shawn's parents home. We enjoyed all the yummy food and great company. For New Years Eve we spent it with our great friends the Bronsons. I made a new skirt for Blakely for her FIRST New Years Eve Teen Dance. All-in-all we had a great Christmas filled with giving, pouting, laughing, and family togetherness.

Sunny Thanksgiving!

Shawn and I decided to head to sunny Arizona for Thanksgiving this year. Shawn's motive to ride in the desert with Jake. Becky's motive to visit family. In order to make the trip worthwhile, we took off the three days prior to Thanksgiving off. It was a stressful time before trying to get prepared for a sub in my class for three days. We headed out in Shawn's truck down to Las Vegas on Sunday. We arrived to Uncle Brad's and Aunt Chelsea's house to excited cousins all the way around. The kids played and played until it was time to go to bed. The next day we headed to the strip to walk around with 9 kids and 3 adults. Now we can say we have done that. We headed for a little shopping at the one and only Las Vegas DI. We are in the big time now. The next day we headed out to Arizona. We traveled well in our 4 door pickup. Excitement would flare up about every hour and half. Shawn's brother let us borrow his GPS which we liked, except when we got close to Phoenix it kept taking us off the freeway. Shawn was a little grouchy about that. We got to Beth and Jake's house that night. The next morning we met Brian and Shan and their kids and went to the Desert Museum. We learned about a true desert. We saw snakes, spiders, mountain lions, and river otters. I didn't think river otters were part of the desert, but okay. We ended our walk through the desert with dinner at CiCi's pizza.
Thanksgiving was the next day and we worked hard to make a fabulous dinner. We had barb-qued turkey, lots of mashed potatoes, frappe, and wonderful pie. We played games and watched movies on the projector in the garage. We loved the sunny weather where no coats were needed. Beth wanted to it the midnight sales for Black Friday, so away we went at 10 o'clock. We stood in line to no avail. There were others who figured out a better system than us. Got home at 1:30 in the morning with nothing to show but tired bodies. The next day was leftovers and good-byes to Brian and Shan's family. Shawn and Jake took off to ride the desert with the girls finding a part for the truck. I was thinking we might have to stay another day. We had gone to about 5 different parts store and I even crawled under the truck and took pictures of the part we needed. (It was a seal for the drive train.) We finally tried the Dodge dealership and hit jackpot. Once the boys were back from the desert, the girls headed to get our toenails done. We enjoyed the foot massage and cute nail polish.
The next morning we got up and headed out about 7:30 in the morning for the long trip back. This time Shawn ignored the GPS and went the way he thought he should go. We stopped for lunch near Vegas and kept trucking. The kids held on pretty good until the last couple hours. We stopped in Wells, NV for gas and snacks. It was definitely time to put back on the coats. Brady wanted Shawn to sit by him so I drove the last 2 hours. We got home at 10:30 pm from a sunny Thanksgiving trip. We thank everyone who helped us have a great vacation.