Carl Bloch Exhibit

Over Spring Break, I decided we would enhance our children's lives with cultural. We drove to BYU and went to the Museum of Art to see the Carl Bloch Exhibit. Our ward was going to go but was snow out. When I had made the reservations, I thought we would have lots of time to get there, but in perfect Becky fashion I over booked us. We zoomed down to Utah finally arriving 15 min. late. They thankfully let us in after I told the hostess we had driven all the way from Idaho to see the exhibit. We wandered around looking at the pictures. Brady found a baby to follow around. Shawn finally told me it was my turn because he thought the parents would think he was a stalker. I wish we would have gotten a chance to use the IPad presentation, but oh well. All the different paintings were wonderful to see. Katelyn was affected by one painting called the Murder of the Innocence. Which was when King Herod declared to kill all the boy babies. The boys were less interested in the paintings, but sure loved the ducks in the pond. We left and checked into the hotel and went out to eat. We swam and then actually enjoyed sleeping at a hotel with children. THe next day we were able to attend our cousin's Braxton priesthood ordinance and be able to see some of my family. We then headed home to start our Spring Break.

Pocatello Clogging Competition

Blakely started her lifetime dream of clogging this year. She has always wanted to clog, but her mom put piano lessons before clogging lessons. I finally decided to let her do both this year. She competed in Pocatello this weekend. I hurried home from school and braided her hair and put on her stage makeup. We loaded up the kids and headed to Poky. We arrived at the Performance Center in the heart of ISU. It was fun to show the kids where Shawn and I went to school. There were clogging kids everywhere. Her group practiced. I went into the auditorium and sat down. I have never been to a competition before, so it was weird to see people walking in and out of the auditorium while groups were performing. Blakely's group performed and then we were done. I made them stay and watch for alittle bit. It would have been fun to see the more advanced teams but they were not until Saturday. I took the kids out to Golden Corral all by myself. They did pretty good until we went into Fred Meyer's. I decided it was time to load up and head for home. Next competition is Lagoon in May. Great job Blakely!

President's Day weekend fun

Shawn has been wanting to go down to Hagerman to ride all winter. It has been just too cold to go. I asked if he wanted to take the family trail riding with him. He decided that would be an okay plan. We thought over President's Day weekend would be perfect. We would go down and spend the night at Grandpa Manwaring's house. We would go swimming at 1000 springs and go trail riding. Aaahh, what a wonderful weekend it would be. Well, Blakely had skiing so out went the spending the night. We said it will still be okay we'll just go down for the day. We headed down and unloaded. Dad didn't know what he was in for with taking his family that had never trail ridden before. His son crashed and would not get back on. His wife and daughter kept stalling and he would have to come back and rescue us. His other daughter would only ride in first gear. By the time we got half way down the trail he was ready to give up. We headed back to truck. I told him to go and ride while we stayed by the truck. I then encouraged Blakely and Katelyn to practice going up and down hills. We watched other riders zooming up and down monster hills. Garret climbed the monster hill. Shawn came back and taught Blakely and Mom how to go up and down hills. We rode on a few trails until Brady was shivering. It finally turned out okay. We loaded up and headed to 1000 springs. After spending $37 the kids were hungry and ready to go within the hour. Shawn and I tried to decide if 1 hour was worth the $37 spent. Probably not, so we stayed 30 more min.(much better)We headed to Grandpa's to quickly clean out his fridge and have a snack. We headed home as fast as we could because there were no tail lights on the trailer. All in all a good day, just maybe we will do better next time.

Honors Band

Blakely was picked to go to district honors band this year. She looked forward to this day. She would get to go down to Twin Falls and practice with other band students from all over. Then they would get to hang out at the mall and eat dinner. Brady and I were the two lucky people to head down to Twin and watch the honors band, orchestra, and choir perform. They did a great job. We waited in the freezing cold to get Blakely and pick her up after the concert. We hit Sonic on the way home and got everyone in bed. It had been a long day since Blakely had to be on the bus at 7:20 in the morning. Way to go Blakely!

Just Dance Mania

When Blakely got Just Dance as a Christmas present, I didn't know the sensation it would cause in our house. All through Christmas vacation they played it. When school started, they would play it every night after school. Their friends would come over and play it. It is a lot of fun and that is how they claim they get their exercise. Katelyn would always make Garret play in the background. Most of the time he just goes to the back but there are times he puts up a fuss.
Just recently, Blakely invited friends to stay after school on a half day to play Just Dance. It was fun to see how all the kids danced and enjoyed playing with each other.

11 wanting to be 12

Katelyn turned 11 on January 13th.(Luckily it wasn't on a Friday) :) Katelyn woke up to the aroma of warm waffles. She was served waffles by her wonderful dad and mom in bed. She ate her favorite breakfast with enjoyment. Blakely gave Katelyn a pink and brown scarf as she headed out the door for school. Katelyn took brownies to her class for her birthday treats. It was only a half a day so Katelyn was excited to go and spend the rest of the day at Bekah's house. After she was picked up we hung out at the Bronson's house. We came home and hurried and made Italian chicken for our Katelyn. Katelyn received a camera for her birthday from her Mom and Dad. Katelyn wants to have her ears pierced, but that priviledge comes at the age of 12 in our family. She kept saying she wanted to be 12 instead of 11, but I don't want her to grow up so fast. She will be 12 before we know it. Katelyn loves to read. She loves to help and is very nuturing. She is good at school. Remember you are a daughter of your Heavenly Father. Listen and quickly be obedient to your parents because we will never lead you astray. Always be the kindest to your brothers and sister for they will be your champions. We love you!

DARE Graduation

As school has gotten back into session from Christmas break; we had the opportunity to attend Katelyn's 5th grade DARE graduation. I thought it was so important for the whole family to attend this night, but with all the wiggling around from the boys; I asked myself why didn't I leave them home with Blakely. DARE stands for Drug and Abuse Resistance Education. Katelyn has been learning about drugs and alcohol since the beginning of school from Officer Bird. Here are a few things she has learned: I learned about peer pressure,how to say no, and many other things. There are 7 ways to say no like walking away, giving them the cold shoulder, just a plain no, giving reason or fact, change the subject, repeated refusal, and use humor.
Thank you, Katelyn for telling us what you learned in DARE.