Sadie is 11

 I really cannot believe that our Sadie has been with us for ELEVEN years!  Crazy!  She is such a great kid.  I don't know why we have been so blessed to have her (and all our other kids) sent to our family.  She teaches me every day by her sweet example.  She loves helping her younger brother and sisters, playing with friends and having fun.  She is very observant and when she can tell that I'm frustrated about something, she asks what she can do to help me.  We love her so much.

She had some friends over for a movie party.  I introduced them to Nancy Drew.  I think they all liked it!

 These girls (and Zac) are amazing.  I'm so glad that Sadie has such good friends.

 Birthday morning streamers and presents.

 I made her this dress and she chose to wear it to the daddy daughter dance that night.  :)

 Girls and daddy watching Sadie open presents from the couch.

 We surprised Sadie by showing up at the school for lunch.  We got to eat with Emery, Zac and then Finally Sadie came in.  It was a fun day.  

 I made her wear the birthday banner and crown.  :)

 Zac also got to wear a fun hat at lunch, but that's because he was a table washer.  I forgot to snap a picture with Emery.  I love seeing my kids at school and interacting with their friends. 

 Riley was happy we ran into our friend Lucy and got to sit with her for a bit.  

 Then that night after Kung Fu, it was off to the Daddy Daughter dance at the church.  These two had such a fun time with their dad.  I'm pretty sure Rob was the best dancer there...besides Sadie and Emery of course!  

Happy birthday Sadie!

SNOW DAY!

 The kids finally got to experience a snow day!  We got about a foot of snow overnight back in February and the schools actually closed in Utah.  That rarely happens.  The kids were so excited and so was I.  I got outside and started shoveling.  I got about half way done and I was exhausted.  Rob came out and helped and we finished just in time for the kids to come out and play.  We made them big pile to sled down. 

 I love shoveling snow.  This time it would have been nice to have a snowblower though.  Ha ha.  It was a ton of work.

 The snow pile could have been much taller, but we made it wider at the bottom so it was more stable.  

 Finley loved eating the snow.

 And she loved having me pull her around in the sled.  ha ha

 The kids had such a fun time just playing and climbing in the snow.  

 My friend Robyn came over with her two girls and we played and had hot chocolate. Finley loves Robyn!

 Here's Lucy testing out the snow hill.

 Hot cocoa!

 Zac and his friends turned our sledding hill into an igloo.  You could go all the way in.  I was nervous that it would collapse on someone, so I watched them from the window the whole time they were out there.  

Rob is handsome.  Especially when he has snow in his hair and eyebrows.  

We had another pretty good snow storm a few days after this and the kids were wanting another snow day.  I told them not to get used to that because I think the last time that Utah had a snow day before this one was like 20 years ago.  I am glad they got to experience one snow day as kids though.

SNOW! And Lunar Ecplise

 On Avatar the Last Airbender (a show my kids like to watch) they talk about a blood moon.  my kids decided to ask Alexa when the next blood moon was.  She told us January 21st.  So for months, my kids were counting down the days until the next blood moon.  It was nice because it ended up being on a night when the kids didn't have school the next morning so we woke them up to see it.  I took a picture which of course doesn't show how spectacular it really looked, but the kids were pretty impressed.  My parents were still in town with us so it was fun to get to see it with them.

 Blood moon.

 While my parents were here, there was also a big snow storm.  My dad was worried about getting a ticket for parking on the road when the plows came by, so he pretty much shoveled all day.  He kept our entire driveway clear and a huge chunk of the street in front of our house.  It was the best looking spot on the whole street!  Thanks dad!  Also, the kids made a snow bunny. 

 And a big snowman.  

 We always try to get a picture of the kids with the grandparents when they come. 

 Riley was NOT in the mood.

 Finley loved snuggling with grandpa.  It was so sweet.

Finley loves her grandparents.  Maybe its just because she loves them, but maybe it's because she remembers that they (especially my mom) took care of her when she was 3 and a half months old.  Either way, she's really cute!

Did I do that???

We were at Winco getting candy out of their bulk bins when Riley decided to sit down on some paper towels.  As she sat down she scooted back to make more room for her bum, not realizing that this action would cause a big tumble on the other side of the aisle.  It made for a good laugh and of course we picked them up and stacked them how they were. 

AZ Trip Part 2

 At grandma and grandpa's house, there are fun shapes that the kids would play with over and over.  I'm thinking I may need to invest in some of these.  They loved making designs out of them.

 Here are some lovely flowers the girls made.  I had to promise to take pictures of their creations before they would put them away. 

 Finley loved playing with grandma especially when she let her wear her glasses!  

 One morning we went to the park to play racquetball and badminton. The kids had fun learning racquetball from the 2002-2004 first place racquetball champion of youth Olympics.  (that's me!)  ha ha.  They had fun I think but we kept losing balls left and right.  I guess we need to work on accuracy next time.  After the racquetball lesson, we drove over and found a park to play on.

 The kids had a blast.  They love all the playgrounds that have sand.  We only have wood chips at our parks, so it was fun to have lots of time to play in the sand.

 Grandma took Finley for a stroll and then kicked her off so she could have a turn.  Ha ha just kidding.  Finley had run off to the playground I think.

 We had to show the kids this huge mushroom growth.  My kids love finding mushrooms growing and then making a big deal about how we can DIE if we eat them.  

 After the park, we wandered over to the library where the peacocks hang out.  We were lucky and caught one with his feathers on display. 

 Sadie is such a helpful big sister.  She seriously loves it when Finley will let her carry her around.  And it is a nice break for Rob and I.  :)

 We checked out the cactus garden.  My kids were searching for jumping cactus.  Fortunately we never found any.  Ha ha.  My experience is, when you find jumping cactus, it's already jumped at you and is stuck in your leg.  

 Finley spent a lot of time looking at grandma's chickens.  She loved just sitting on the back porch and watching them wander the yard.

 Grandma let the kids feed them "treats".  Cut up tortillas or cooked spaghetti noodles.  

 They loved it.

 We made our trip to Cabella's to check out the animals there.  We also let the kids shoot the laser guns this time.  They had a blast, and Riley loved watching the talking deer head on the wall.  She showed everyone that would listen to her.  

My parents were nice and let Rob and I go to the temple and out to eat for lunch one day.  They watched the kids for us.  This was our late celebration of our double anniversary.  We call it our double anniversary now because it is the day we got married (12 years ago) and the day we found out about my brain tumor. (1 year ago)  It's still crazy to think back to that time.  It seems like a dream really.  We are so grateful that everything turned out as well as it did.  I have no real side affects (except when my "tubie"(shunt) hurts every once in a while.) and we are just so grateful that it wasn't anything more serious than it was.  Which is funny, because it was pretty serious.  Anywho. 

 The temple was amazing.  Crowded, but amazing.  

 All temples are just so beautiful.

 Then we went to eat somewhere where they served delicious onion rings.  It was so good!  I got a chicken sandwich the size of my head and Rob got some BBQ. 

 Grandma made us all matching jammies!  That definitely deserves a photo shoot!  And Finley loved the piano.  She could climb up there all by herself and play a song. 

 She often joined the other kids while they were trying to practice.  

 Grandma took us to the Legoland center.  It was tons of fun.  It was seriously perfect for our family.  There were a couple rides, and lots of activities to keep the kids busy. So so fun! 

 Right when we got there we were greeted with this smiling face.

 Then as we walked closer we saw this fun sculpture in the water fountain.

 Inside there were all sorts of Lego sculptures to look at and lots of Legos to build with.

 Then Mr. Lego himself made an appearance.  So we had to get a picture!

 Here is Sadie with the car she built to send down the ramp.  And Zac apparently about to punch this nice looking Lego guy.

 The kids raced their cars down the ramp.  I don't know if any of the cars survived.  Most of them broke.  Ha ha.

 Zac really was having a good time.  

 This was a joker guy that Sadie wanted a picture of.

 We watched 2 4D movies.  They were really fun.  

 Grandma had the magic touch and Finley fell asleep right in her arms.  Then Emery fell asleep on the couch when we got home. 

 Another outing to a park.  Finley face planted and wasn't very happy about it.

 Arizona has the best sunsets!

On our last night there, we met up with my cousins and their families and played 9 square.  If you haven't ever player 9 square, you should.  It's so fun.  It's like a mix between 4 square and volleyball.  Kinda.  But it was fun. And it was fun to catch up with my cousins who I hadn't seen in such a long time.

 9 square.  

 Finley made fast friends with my aunt and uncle.

The next morning we made the long drive back home.  This time we did it all in one day. It was a long day, but the kids seriously did amazing in the car.  I'm always surprised at how well they do.  My parents actually drove down too because towed a car to bring to my brother in South Dakota.  So they met us at our house a little after we got home.

 The kids enjoying their new activity books for the ride home.

 Riley fell asleep and kept falling over.  Sadie had to keep pushing her back up.

 We stopped in Leeds to use the bathroom.  The kids were excited because our good friends Hyrum and Tessa Lefler used to live there.  Hyrum was actually the Mayer of this little town for a while.  Pretty fun.

We got home safe and sound.  The the kids got to help unwrap the cedar chest with grandpa.  Fun times!

Such a great trip but also very exhausting.  Traveling in general is exhausting, but add kids in the mix and you just get so TIRED.  But it is so worth it.