Valentine's day cards and so forth...

 
Now this is a funny picture. I caught Dave eating and Meagan..., well, Meagan is being Meagan. LOL! Anyway, woke and made a special valentine's breakfast before sending them out the door to school and work. Yummy crepes with their choice of many toppings.

 
This year we got our valentine's day card idea from familyfun.com. I love this site. I am not very creative and this site is a great one for fun ideas to do with kids. We also had fun making the kids "mail boxes" that their cards from friends go in.

 
For Chase, his "card" was a foam heart with a sucker stuck though that read "you can count on me in a 'sticky' situation". The girls went with the same foam cut out heart but with a glow stick made into an arrow that said "you make my heart glow". For their teacher, we found a little sewing kit at the dollar store and attatched a heart that ssid "you are 'sew' cool!" I actually got the idea when I saw the mini sewing kits at the store....YEAH FOR ME!


 

The food and the presentation are what make each holiday a tradition and memorable for the kids. We almost always have "berries on a cloud" and this year I shaped the rolls into heart for our dinner meal. As I said in the last post, it's really tough when you fall behind in blogging/journaling because you can't remember all the details of that day but I'm sure I made a fabulous dinner too:). I love my little sweeties and I love my big sweetie too!

Cute letters and fun at Discovery Gateway

 
Okay, my girls have a real crush! A crush on babies! They get it from the Schell side of the family. We all LOVE babies. I remember my brothers being teenagers and having a couple of posters of babies on their walls. How many teenage boys have babies on their walls?
Anyway, Jenna is the most infactuated of the two girls. At Christmas they met some new 2nd cousins and they just happen to be twin boys. If I kept up with the blog then I could remember how old they were at the time but I believe they were around 6 months old. My girls couldn't get enough and miss them. These letters above are two letters that Jenna wrote about them; Joshua and Kaleb. They read: "Kaleb is very chubby which makes him cute. He has very soft cheeks and hands. He also has tiny fingernails and ears. What makes him extra, extra, extra adorable ishis really cute chubbyness. I LOVE KALEB! HE IS EXTRORDANARY!" and..."Joshua is very chubby and a little more cheerful than Kaleb. He always sticks out his bottom lip. (It is so adorable) because he is so cute and I love to hold him. I LOVE JOSHUA! HE IS THE BEST!" They crack me up!


 
The kids are on year round school here and so they are on for a few weeks and off for 3. It is hard to find different ways to entertain them but we seem to do enough to keep me from going crazy and the kids from just sitting in front of the wii and tv the entire time. This time one of the places we sent was a childrens museum. We went a friend of mine and her kids. Here are the kids pretending to be news casters and weather reporters in front of a green screen.


 
They have different stations where you learn about different things. This station was where they learned about flying. Tyler was a little too old for most of it but he did enjoy a couple of stations.

 
Here are the kids in the farm area of the museum. They had a little grocery store and showed how it goes from the farm to the store.

 

These are my friend, Natalie's cute kids having fun too; Eliza, Abby, Zola and Loyal. My girls LOVE Eliza and fawn over Loyal. Can you blame them? Look how dang cute he is.
Anyway, we crashed a magic show while we were there too...it was some kids b-day party and so we gathered around and benifitted from his party:-). The kids had fun and I got to gab with a good friend. Fun day!

Listening to the whispering of the Spirit

There is an experience that I had (and in a way continue to have) that happen last year that I have not shared in here and since this has become my journal and since it was such an amazing experience I will share it.
We have moved alot in the last 5 years and because of that the kids have changed schools alot and because of that they haven't had very many long term friendships. It is very hard to go to a new school and be the new kid amoung kids who have grown up together. It is hard to find where you fit in and how you fit in and it gets harder the older you are.
This experience is mainly about Tyler (my oldest). He is now 15 and in 8th grade. He has gone to 6 different schools in the 9 years he's been in school and so he is very good at...."being the new kid". It was easier when he was younger because...well, we all know that young kids aren't as clicky or mean and are very open armed when it comes to friends. As you get older, though, it is harder and this is were this story begins.
In August of 2009 we moved to South Jordan, Utah after having spent 11 months living in Omaha, Nebraska (and before that we lived in American Fork, Utah). Tyler was starting his 7th grade year at South Jordan Middle School. We who have been through middle school know that it is the toughest time in a kids life. They are lost and trying to figure out who they are and where they fit in. It is not an easy 2-3 years and Tyler had a double whammy; middle school AND being the new kid.
Tyler is a quiet kid when it comes to big groups. He is very kind and sensitive to others and sensitive himself in return. He doesn't understand it when kids kid around in a mean way. Having said that, it was more than kids being kids. He was beginning to be bullied by a couple of kids. He would come home and tell me things that would break my heart but he was also determined to work it out himself. I was, of course, very frustrated because of the lack of teacher involvment but sensitive to the fact that this school was so overpopulated (3 grades and over 1,600 students). I started thinking of what we can do and one of my suggestions to Tyler was to go to the Charter school that had just started that year. The Priciple there had been the Priciple of another Charter school Tyler had been to in American Fork and so we knew and liked him. The charter school seemed to be a great option mainly because there can be no more than 75 kids per middle school grade. Hmmm, 225 kids compared to over 1,600? No brainer. I was heistant, though, just because I felt like Tyler needs some stability too and changing schools again wasn't going to provide that. It was an option though and so I asked him if he would like to put his name in the lottery at Early Light Academy and see what happens. He did so we waited to see.
Within a month we recieved an email telling us that Tyler got into ELA (Early Light Academy) so we filled out the forms and sent them in to hold his postition.
Skipping forward another month....Tyler did work it out at South Jordan Middle. He took care of the sitiuation and actually turned those two bullies into...well, not friends but they actually stopped picking on him and started defending him if needed from others. I still didn't like the lack of control but was happy if he was happy.
Skipping ahead another month, Tyler decided by the end of the school year that he wanted to stay at SoJo. When August rolled around and the new school year was a week away from beginning and we hadn't recieved his new schedule for the 8th grade I called the school. They informed me that they didn't have his records any more because they were at ELA and what I needed to do was go to ELA a request them to be sent back. To make this part of the story a little shorter, I found out that there was a deadline for transferring records that I had missed by under 2 weeks. I was never informed of this deadline but still didn't think it a problem because, hey, we live within the bounderies of this school and so they HAD to let Tyler go there....which is true if it wasn't for the fact that the school was already over it's 1,500 student limit by over 1,000 students and the fact that the Principle of SoJo was not going to take Tyler back because she was mad that the school hadn't recieved the money for him from the state (it had gone to ELA). She was very headstrong and heartless as I broke down in tears realizing that Tyler, who was finally making freinds and feeling some stability, was going to have to go to a new school because "we had made our choice to not go with South Jordan".
Well, that was just not going to happen. I was not going to let this happen to my son. I came home with Tyler, who was very upset also, and suggested that we kneel down right then a ask Heavenly Father for help. We did and although I began in tears and pleading I ended with a very calm feeling that everything was going to be ok. Knowing how Heavenly Father works though, I got on the phone right away and called Dave. He called the Superintendant and explained the situation and the Super said he'd call the Principle and that we would try to get this worked out.
Without knowing if he would get in and having to wait to for the call to find out, we were all very nervous and continued to pray. This all started on a Thursday. By Monday, I started getting this feeling as I (and we-Dave and I) would pray that he would be able to go to SoJo that he was supposed to go to ELA. No. NO! NO WAY! He needs stability! He needs to make this decision himself and he wants to go back to SoJo! So, I hid this feeling from my husband and son thinking that it was just my imagination.
Then, on Tuesday night after Dave and I had said our couples prayer (and as I was beginning to think I needed to tell him about the feeling I was getting) he looks at me and says, "You know, I think that Tyler is supposed to go to ELA". No way! I finally told him that I had been having the same feeling but was to afraid. It felt good to know that the Lord was speaking to us both and that we knew because of it that it really was where he should be.
So, what do we do now? We knew where Tyler was supposed to go but felt that Tyler should still make the decision. Wednesday morning (a day before ELA was to start and 2 days before the first day at SoJo) we sat down with Tyler and told him of the promptings from the Spirit that we had felt. Tyler reacted exactly how we figured he would. He was not happy. We told him that it was still his choice and that he could go where he chose so our prayers now turned to a plead that he would feel that prompting too or that something would guide him to making the decision to go to ELA.
Thursday morning (the first day of school at ELA) I told Tyler that before he could make a decision he needed to get a feel for the other school so we were going up to ELA to talk to Mr. Glather (his old Priciple) and tour the campus. Mr. Glather was a blessing because he was someone that Tyler was familiar with and liked so I was hoping that he would be the turning point in Tylers decision.
Very reluctanly Tyler went to ELA with me to meet with Mr. Glather. He was very quiet as we met with Mr. Glather yet I was feeling very hopeful still. He told us that we were welcome to tour the school and that they were having an assembly in 45 minutes that we were welcome to come for if we wanted. We toured in less than 15 minutes and were trying to decide whether to stay for the assembly or not since it was still 30 minutes from starting. We decided to stay.
We walked in as everyone else started walking in and just stood to the side. I looked over and saw someone that I thought I recognized so I turned to Tyler and asked him if he knew her too. He said she looked familar too but he couldn't place her either so I went up to a passing girl and asked if she knew who it was and she gave me the name Ms. Mott. Still no click so I went back to Ty and asked him. "That's Ms. Mott! She was my 6th grade math teacher at Mountianville Academy!" He LOVED Ms. Mott! Ms. Mott is the kind of teacher everyone loves. She makes everyone feel special. We rushed over to her and right away she recognized Tyler. We told her that he was trying to decide whether to come there or not and she told him how awesome it was and that she'd love to see him there. Then she turned around and asked, "Do you remember Ms. Remington too?" Yet another one of Tyler's past teachers was there teaching! She remembered Tyler too. We stayed for about 20 minutes and decided that it was time to go. As we were walking out Tyler asks me, "Do you think I could get some of those shorts too?" (they weea uniforms there). I knew he knew. I knew he felt it too. I knew he had made his decision. He would go to ELA.
Of course Dave and my prayers then turned to prayers of gratitude with the added, "Lord, help him KNOW now that this was the right decision. Help him make friends and do well and look back and know that the Lord knew where he needed to go even if he thought it wasn't". With less than 3 weeks left in his 8th grade year at ELA I can tell you that he does know. He is so happy with his decision. I am so happy that this is a life experience that he can look back on and say, "Look what happened because I listened". What a testimony for our family.
I am so grateful for the spirit. I am so grateful that we listened to our Heavenly Father. He really does know best. He hears us and answers us and loves us. I will always cherish this experience.

I am only one....

 



This last year we decided as a family that we would look for more opportunities to serve. I thought it would be fun for the kids to have a visual reminder of what they need to do and what they have done so we mounted this in our family room and began keeping track.

 

There are so many randon acts of kindness that the kids did throughout the year that didn't get put mostly because I would forget but it was neat to see the kids learn that it makes them just as happy inside to help someone as it makes the person serving happy.

"IF YOU WANT OTHERS TO BE HAPPY, PRACTICE COMPASSION. IF YOU WANT TO BE HAPPY, PRACTICE COMPASSION!" Here's to a GREAT 2011!

More California fun

 
On this day we were actually going to take the kids to a childrens science center. I remember liking those when I was young and so we decided it would be the perfect thing to get them out of the house and active. HOWEVER, when we got there we found ou that all of Southern California thought the same thing. When we realized we couldn't even find a parking space we decided to take the kids to a park. I believe they had just as much fun there for over 2 hours as they would have at the science center....and it was FREE. Can't beat that!

 
I LOVE how these pictures of the kids turned out! The sun was just right in the sky and the setting was so picture pefect. Lucky for us we didn't notice the sign until we were done taking pictures of the kids....then we got a couple of the adults and called it good.


 
Nelson turned 7 years old on December 31st (poor kids) so we all got to be there for his birthday. Grandma Boden needs to go back to school though; "Happy Birlday"? Heehee. Actually, I didn't even notice until I was going through the pictures later. Not sure anyone noticed :-).
 

Then, later that night, we all celebrated New Years with....NEW YORK! It was 9pm California time and we thought we would get the kids down and play some games with just the adults but we ended up celebrating with Chicago too and then putting the kids down. With all the sugar in their bodies they weren't quite ready at 9pm. The bad news is that I couldn't keep my eyes open by the time it was 10:30 so I snuck off and went to bed myself. I know. I'm such a party pooper.
AND THIS IS IT PEOPLE! I am now officially done with 2010! WOOHOO! and since January is usually a pretty slow month, I am pretty much caught up! YEAH! Just in time for Valentine's day ;-)

Our second Christmas

 
This year Grandpa and Grandma Boden we going to go to South Carolina for Christmas to see Steve, John and Dan and their families but Grandma Boden got sick with pnemonia and that was a no, no. So, on the Wednesday after Christmas we took a trip down to California and spent a few days down there. Mike and Riss and their kids came from Arizona and we had half a family reunion and a second Christmas. I love the pictures of the boys together and the girls together. They honestly look like they could all be brothers and sisters. The shrugs that the girls all have on were all made by Grandma Boden. They turned out really cute. Thanks for all the time spent on the gifts, Carolyn!
 
K, so story behind the attractive pants that Rich is holding up; Dave and Mike set out to get Rich a gift certificate to a golf shop in the area and decided that it would be better to get these golf pants for him. So, instead of opening up just a plain old gift certificate, we all got a good laugh at what he thought (but only for a second) we actually got him. The reaction was worth it and now he can return them and get something he really wants! It was a great idea. SO funny!
Tyler got some things to continue on with his coin collection and Grandpa Boden is excited that he is interested in coin collecting too. Ryan got some camp/scout gear and Chase got a remote control car (that has already been played with so much that it broke already). Dave and I got a beautiful hademade goblet that was made out of a special type of wood (forgot the name) from Grandpa that I don't have a picture of and a bunch of gift certificates to different restuarants which we have enjoyed.

 

The kids LOVE to hang out with their cousins and had so much fun! Rebekah couldn't get enough of Ryan. Little kids LOVE Ryan! It is crazy! He is so gentle and sweet with them so I'm not suprised. I'm always afraid that if I post too many pictures within one entry that some of the pictures will disappear so I will post the rest in another entry.

Christmas Day 2010

 
Our Christmas day started with a 7am wake up and waiting a few minutes for Aunt Marge to get here. Once she got here we started our traditions; reading in the Bible, getting our papers out from last year to see what gift we gave Christ and to think about how we did, writing a new gift to Christ that we are going to give him this year and letting the kids break through the gift paper that we put over the door to the family room every year so there can be no peaking :-).
I put pictures of some of the kids favorite gifts. The triplets love their new wake board, Tyler got a vinyl picture of himself wake boarding at Lake Powell that we put on his bedroom wall, Ryan got his Electric guitar that he has been begging for for the last year, Jenna got a snowbaby (her very first on a collection she is now beggining) and Meagan got a snowglobe from Chase (something she has been collecting for a little over a year now. The kids also got a new trampoline that mom made them follow around the house for clues that led them eventually to the garage because we weren't about to set it up or move the heavy box into the family room. They have been begging us for a new "springy" tampoline ever since the last one I got was a springless (safer) trampoline and it "just doesn't bounce very good". We are waiting until the Triplets birthday in April (Spring) to set it up though.
Dave suprised me with a new digital camcorder and I got dave a Kindell (sp?).
We are sure glad that we have Marge. It doesn't quite feel like Christmas if there is no family around.

 

Onto more family traditions; Dave makes yummy omlettes made to order. This is a tradition that his family (dad) did and we have passed it down to our family. Mom likes this tradition because she can clean up Christmas while Dad makes breakfast. the kids enjoyed their new games (of coarse Chase completely disappeared to play his new Wii Spiderman game Ryan got him for Christmas), and Marge stayed around for half the day to play with us. Dave made most of the dinner too and, as always, it was DELICIOUS! We usually hit the movie theaters on Christmas day but were having too much fun with all the games that Steve and Darcy got us. Our new favorite game is "Tiki Topple". The only thing is that it is only up to 4 players. It is fun though so check it out!

Christmas Eve at the Larsen's

 
Another tradition that has happen for quite a while now is going over to Aunt Claudia and Uncle Craig's house for a Christmas Eve dinner. This year she added in a music show. Who ever plays an instrument and wants to play for the family can. Kirsten played a piano duet with her Aunt Becca who were visiting from Illinois, her brother Kanyon played the trumpet, Ryan played "Silent Night" and "Deck the Halls" on the guitar, Chase played "Jingle Bells" on the recorder, Meagan and Jenna played a duet on the of "Come all ye faithful" on the piano and violin and Clint and Becca and there three kids sang while Becca played the piano. It was actually a pretty cool addition to the evenings events. Brought in the Christmas spirit.

 

Afterward, we all gathered in the Family room for the White Elephant gift exchange. At that point, Dave's Cousin, Marrisa, and her husband, Curtis, visiting from Arizona showed up with their twin baby boys and, OH MY GOODNESS!....the girls went crazy! They could not get enough of those cute boys. Kaleb and Joshua weren't feeling so good but were pretty patient with all the fawning anyway.
The funniest part of the evening was when 6 year old Braden opened up his gift; an old, size 10 womens dress. You have to look at his face in the picture. The reaction was hilarious. Anyway, we were lucky enough to come home with "The Karate kid" and "How to Train Your Dragon" on DVD. I had to BEG Devin not to steal it but he was nice enough to let us keep it. It was a fun evening!

The busy month goes on

 
After starting out the month with a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Boden, Ryan's preisthood ordination and birthday, Ryan's breakdance performance and the girls gymnastic performance (forgot the camera so didn't get any pictures of that one) we went on with more parties and performances. The triplets have been getting up 2 days a week a little early so they can go to school before it starts and be apart of the school Christmas choir. Yes, this is the same one that I mentioned before when I told you that Chase was doing it for "the party that has food afterwards". I asked if he was going to do it again next year and he said no. I guess the reward wasn't worth the effort. It's too bad too because he was hilarious to watch. He made the program worth watching. He was so animated throughout the entire performance. When I first saw him doing some "motions" I thought that they were supposed to do these motions to match the song but nobody else was doing them. Nope. Chase was making them up as he went and it was so funny! At first I was trying to shake my head no to get him to stop when he would look my way but I had a long time friend/mission companion, Nalene Low, who came to watch the kids performance talk me out of it. She said he was making the program better and that it wasn't a big deal. It was pretty funny.
Anyway, they did great and the girls did great on the lines that they had to give.

 
Every year for the pass 14 years (except for the year that we were in Omaha, Nebraska) we have gone to the Pyott Family Christmas party the Friday before Christmas. The Pyott line comes from Dave's maternal grandmothers side. Marie Pyott married Louis Larsen and they are Dave's moms (Carolyn) parents. It has been something our kids have grown up with and look forward to every year.
Every year it is the same thing; we have dinner, then Santa comes and each child gets to sit on his lap and they each get a gift and a candy cane, then we move into the gym and the kids get to hit a pinata that is filled with mostly candy but some change/money. This year was the first year, however, that they did not do the pinata. I honestly forget why though. It was still fun for the kids to see cousins and play in the gym. Here are each of the kids telling Santa what they want for Christmas.

 

Here are also some of the kids 2nd cousins sitting on Santa's lap. Sure wish we would get together with the cousins more. We really don't see them much and I really think that my kids miss not having their first cousins around. I envy my nieces and nephews who live in North Carolina because they have eachother. I hope they know how lucky they are.

December means....

 
Jenna has been taking piano for about 10 months now and she surely has a gift. She practices everyday without being asked and sometimes twice and has excelled quickly. People are amazed how good she is for the time that she has taken. She had a big recital in September that we forgot to take our camera to and a little one with 3 other kids at one of the students homes in December. I LOVE listening to hear practice. Especailly when she goes above and beyond and starts learning other songs on her own.

 
We have had a lot of snow this year so fat along with the rest of the country. Of coarse with snow comes at least one or two snowmen. Meagan was sick that day and didn't get to help so it was just Ryan, Chase, and Jenna that made this little man.

 

Neighbor gifts this year were a long time coming. I bought these little wooden sleds about 5 or 6 years ago with the idea of doing neighbor Christmas gifts and I finally did it this year....with Tyler's help (he was home sick from school). They turned out really cute, I think.
So, yes, we have had the "sick" going around in our house. My kids are pretty healthy for the most part and don't get much but colds every-once-in-a-while but this year we just passed it from one to another. All were good during Christmas and the surrounding days though so that was a blessing. Dave and I have been fine....and with that I will close my entry and go find some wood to knock on.