Sadie is 16

Sadie turned 16 on February 13th.  I can't believe I have a 16 year old!  She now has her license and is driving the little blue car back and forth to school and lacrosse practice.  On her birthday, it was a pretty busy day because she had school, then practice, then a team dinner, then a church activity.  So we didn't see her much.  She also had early morning seminary, so I put a candle in her toast to make it festive.  :)  Then after school, before practice she got to open her presents.  Finley got her "the perfect man" made out of chocolate (pictured above).

I think this was probably her favorite gift.  

Then I was sneaky and planned a little surprise party for her.  We invited the youth from church to come over and do a mystery box.  They were here when she got home from practice.  

I told them to make sure they couldn't be seen until she got inside and they really hid well.  Ha ha!

Her friends are so fun.  I think they had a blast even though they had to go outside for part of it and it had started snowing!

Silly picture

Working on putting puzzles together for their next clue.

The prize was a suran wrap ball filled with cheap prizes and candy.

Happy 16th Birthday Sadie!

They had to go to a neighbors house and sing I'm a little teapot...and they didn't even really know the song!  Yikes.  ha ha

Birthday Toast

I'm so impressed with how grown up Sadie is.  She is so responsible, inclusive, nice, hardworking and she is always trying to be a better person.  We love her!  She's also planning on going to prom in a few weeks which will be her first date!  

 

Christmas 2023

Christmas this year was a blast!  We just stuck around West Jordan and had a quiet, relaxing Christmas.  We started off by seeing the Elves at Gardner Village.  I love that the kids are big enough now that we can browse some of the shops!  Zac was even able to get Sadie a gift very sneakily after she pointed out some books she wanted to start reading while we were in the book store.  :)  We came out of the shop and couldn't find Rob and Finley for a few minutes, and it turns out they were in the phone booth just laughing while watching us search for them.  Then all the girls crammed in for a picture.  

The kiss contest Elf display is always one of my favorites!

Sadie took this family picture and I love it!  

Notice how the kids are wearing just sweatshirts to walk around.  It didn't get very cold this year until after Christmas.  In fact, I don't think we had any snow on the ground until after Christmas this year.  It was a strange weather year.

Christmas Eve morning.  Elf chart opening before heading off to church.

As we were taking this picture, Zac's friend drove up and dropped off a present.  I'm sure they were laughing at our setup.  My phone was balanced on a barstool with a few books and I was running to get into the picture before the timer went off. 

Crazy picture.  I love how Finley is wearing a pair of socks she got from the Elf Chart with her church shoes.  :)

We kept a secret from the kids that Uncle Duncan, Uncle Luke and William were coming on Christmas eve. The kids went to bed and then Rob picked them up from the airport so when they woke up on Christmas morning, it was a surprise.  

The Chaos of Christmas!

We played a new game that William got.  We played lots of games while they were here.  It's fun to have enough people to play those games that you need a lot of people for.

Christmas Dinner.  I think it was Tri tip with Potatoes and bread.  Yummy.

Duncan got a Lego set that he very patiently let Finley help him put together.  She worked with him for a good 2 hours or more.  

Reading scriptures.  I caught Finley holding Uncle Luke's hand.  

We built a 9 square for the family for a gift this year.  It has been well used already!  We had it up the whole time we had visitors and we played every day. 

We went to Christmas in Color a few days after Christmas and it was fun.  The only weird thing was that almost the entire time we were driving through, they were playing Taylor Swift songs.  I didn't mind, because I liked them all, but it wasn't very Christmassy.  Rob wasn't loving it.  Ha ha

And, bonus!  They handed out the light glasses for everyone in the car!  So cool!

Zac and William had a great time.  Zac loves having another boy around to play with.

See what I mean?

Overall, it was a great Christmas.  We are so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who sent his Son Jesus Christ to live on earth and atone for our sins so we can live with Him again.  

 

First day of School 2023

2023 school year.  First day of school

Sadie- 10th grade

Zac- 8th grade

Emery- 6th grade

Riley- 4th grade

Finley- Kindergarten!

These kids were ready for the new school year!  Sadie at the high school, Zac at the middle school and the rest at the elementary school.  

 

Riley's 9th Birthday

Riley got to spend her birthday a little bit differently this year.  We were out of town in La Grande.  So she woke up on her birthday in a hotel room.  :) She was a good sport.  Especially since we were going to be driving 6 and a half hours to Portland and Vancouver Washington that day.

We had kinda celebrated her birthday with grandma the night before.  This is our post church picture.

Zac was still with his cousin Calvin and his family so he missed out on this birthday morning picture.

Pit Stop.

We went for a fun little walk in Portland with Luke and William when we got there.

We made it to Evan and Shanna's house that evening and aunt Shanna made a delicious cake for her birthday so she could blow out candles. 

Riley is such a fun girl.  She always want to play with whoever will play with her.  She attracts babies and little kids everywhere she goes.  She loves to stay up reading in bed.  We love her! 

 

Zac turned 13

Back in April, Zac turned 13.  He is such a good kid.  He is kind, playful, inclusive and he is learning all kinds of fun instruments.  He's in 8th grade now (at the time of me typing this) and he plays bass clarinet, trumpet and french horn.  He has 3 band classes every day!  

I must say that having teenagers has been really fun so far.  Zac and Sadie keep me laughing and they are mostly fun to have around.  I'm not saying that they are always happy and playful, they for sure have their moments, but don't we all!  I love seeing Zac growing into a wonderful young man.  I think growing up with all sisters has helped him be really good in social situations.  ha ha.  He has lots of friends.  Boys and Girls.  

On his birthday, the elementary school had their talent show and these girls performed I Lava You.  They sang and played the ukulele.  It was cute.

William got to visit near Zac's birthday also.  Zac absolutely loved having another boy around.

They played all day and enjoyed these yummy sodas on the back deck.

This is Zac's classic face.  It always makes me laugh.  

We love our Zac.  Happy birthday!

 

Trip to La Grande

We went to La Grande in July to visit Rob's family.  It was such a fun trip.  The kids are getting better and better at traveling.  The kids are growing bigger though, so the car seems to be getting smaller.  Ha ha.  Zac left a week early to hang out with his cousin and their family on their camping trip.  Since there was an empty seat in Zac's absence on the trip up, it was a really comfortable trip.  :)  We stopped by and visited Rob's dad in the rehab place he's been in.  It was really nice to see him and chat for a while.  

We got to go to church with grandma and spend some time at the hotel pool.  We also got to celebrate Riley's birthday a day early.  She turned 9.  

On Riley's actual birthday we traveled to Portland to be with Uncle Luke and then continued on to stay with my brother and his family and to reunite with Zac. 

These pictures are out of order.  But it takes too long to drag them into the right order.  So just read the caption underneath.

Riley woke up as a 9 year old in the hotel room!

We went to church with grandma and got to stay after for food.  

Sisters on Riley's birthday.  We were still without Zac.  He was having a blast with his cousin Calvin.

Bubble beards in the hot tub.

Here's Sadie trying to tackle Rob in the water.  She did not win.

Emery was an expert at gathering all the bubbles.

Finley also loved the hot tub.

We made everyone take a nap on Sunday because we left for La Grande around 2:30 pm so we didn't get there until 10 pm or so.  They all said they weren't tired....

But they all slept for a couple hours.  

That is, once we separated them.  They were trying to nap in the same bed and that was not working! Once we separated them, they fell right to sleep.

After church picture.  We do this every time we go to La Grande.

 Here are a couple pictures from Zac with his cousins.  Here they are skipping rocks.

Stacking water bottles.

They stopped at the beach on the way home and it was super foggy.  Typical Oregon coast. 

Rest stop in Idaho.

Visiting grandpa.

Start of our adventure!

Sadie got back from trek, came home and showered, then we left for La Grande.  Lucky her...she was so tired!