The Glowing Stick Men

Four words:

Elementary school talent show.

  Ansen and 3 of his friends aka The Glowing Stick Men danced their little hearts out in the dark all while looking awesome.  Honestly it was so fun to watch them break it down.  Ansen even had a solo and it rocked!

(The picture below is from a practice the kids had so they didn't have their heads on.)

The Glowing Stick Men won the award for:

Was there any doubt?

Way to go Glowing Stick Men!

Pinewood derby

 Look at this boy....and his dad....and his Pinewood derby car!

He loved making his first car with his dad and racing it at the derby!  Scouts has been so fun for this kid.

 To go along with scouts, this past weekend was our cake auction.  With how crazy our day was we barley had enough time to whip up these babies to auction off:

Flowers:

 and monkey's:

 The kids won this cake at the auction and, with the help of some friends, inhaled it in no time flat.

 Jason got this beauty and we had it for breakfast the next day. Yum.

I love it when we get to eat junk food!

Principal's Office

The kids and I went to a fundraiser at daddy's old elementary school recently.  While we were there we could resisit snapping a few shots where daddy spent some of his time.

Ah, the memories.

Woodburn basketball

 For young women's last night we went to the girls varsity basketball game to watch a few of our Laurels play.  Behind us was sitting a man who was the father of a player on the visiting team. See him up there in there?  Behind the kids? He was also the coach the Oregon State Men's basketball team.  Braley about died when she found out he was a Beaver!  As the lone Beaver in our family that earned her a big hug from Coach Robinson and a photo op. He was really nice and this girls was thrilled.

 After he walked away I told the kids that he was related to someone pretty important.

Who does he look like to you?  Maybe a little like Michelle Obama?  He is Michelle Obama's brother and thank goodness I didn't tell the kids til after he was out of earshot because the first words out of Kahau's mouth were, "Let me just go talk to him about his brother-in-law."  

We had a quick discussion about how Coach Robinson has nothing to do with running the country and how she should keep quiet!

Fun night, neat experience, cool memory.

Turning into Skov

Ansen needed a haircut and he really, really, realllllly wanted a haircut like Shayne Shov, a linebacker for Stanford.

He called and asked if it was okay to get his haircut and he was given the green light.

Ta-da:

As you can see from the pic below the hair runs down the back of his head.

So currently he looks like Skov and he couldn't be happier.  We aren't taking family pictures anytime soon so the haircut works for me.  But when it's time for pictures....it's gone.

Reason for my trip

It's not like I needed a reason to go home but it's always nice to have an extra special one.

Jamie and Zander were sealing in the Boston Temple on Saturday the 4th and it was such a nice day.  The day may have been cold but it was beautiful out! Just look at that sky.

 Zander's mom Kim was able to come for the sealing and it was so nice to see her.

 Mom and Dad and us girls.

Really nice day, lots of fun. Plus it's not everyday your sister unintentionally flashes the guy in the car next to you.  Right, Kirs?

The frigid northeast

I took myself to the airport (yet again) for another quick trip.  After the warmth of Florida and the comfy temps in Utah I decided it was time to freeze my butt off and head home to say hello to the parents, siblings and niece and nephew.

Gate C15 and I have become very close over the past month.

 I mean look at theses babies.  They were dying to meet me and I was dying to teach them all sorts of cool things like sitting up and crying through the night.

 Olive:

Axel:

While I was home I did partake in an obscene amount of Dunkin' Donuts eating,

 And Friendly's scarfing.   A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.

Oh yea, there were other people there too.  Like my sisters and parents and brothers-in-law.......

 But seriously guys there was babies and Dunkin'.  There's really no competition.

My trip was supposed to be a 4 day vaca but then Mother Nature got involved and BAM!  I got an extra 4 days due to freezing weather, freezing rain, and something called an Arctic Vortex. The whole nation was stuck, No one was flying anywhere. It was beyond cold.  Let me just show you:

And these were some of the high's!

I finally made it home to the balmy 40's in Oregon and instantly thought:

"Oh New England, I love you.  But mostly from April to October."

January 1st

Welcome 2014!

To start off the year the girls broke last years New Years Resolution (no fast food) and had huge meal of fast food.  We told them they could have any fast food they wanted and they chose McDonalds.  About an hour after they horked it all down they felt terrible and recommitted to another year of zero fast food.  Way to go ladies!

Bring it on 2014. Team Widing it ready.