Valentine's get away

Thanks to our friends we got to get away to St. George and enjoy the sunshine and golf. It is amazing how a little warm sunshine can make you feel after months of cold and snow.

We played a new course called Sand Hallow. The back nine was beautiful.

Happy Valentine's Day

We went "BYU Bowling" for Valentine's Day! We love "Da da" as Jake says.

My sweet little valentine is growing up so fast.

Ya, I just got a strike. No big deal, I already got a strike on the first ball.

I finally got a spare yahooo!

We got Grandma Due to go with us. Lots of love and fun had by all!

Sledding

Emily and Jake finally got to experience sledding (the Aunt Jill way) for the first time. When they were little Dad pulled them around the front yard. Since Devo and I really don't like the snow and being cold we don't do a lot of family winter activities.

We drove to a dirt rode by my sisters and hooked the sleds up to the 4-wheeler. It hadn't snowed in a while so there were deep tire tracks. About 2 minutes into the ride Jake got stuck in a rut and turned sideways and got a little scared so I had to ride with him. I planned on only taking pictures so my jeans didn't hold up against the snow so I was soaking wet. Still tons of fun.

Emily wasn't ready to stop so Jake and I traded places and went for another ride. I don't think Jake is too into sledding. Sammy loves riding on the 4-wheeler and he kept finding the gas when Jill would stopped and turn around to take a picture.

Emily loves sledding!

Vegas

We went to Vegas for the holiday. Devo asked the kids what they wanted to do this year and going to see grandma and grandpa Skinny was on the top of their list.

The kids enjoyed being outside in the warm weather. After being cooped up for months the park seemed like Disneyland to them.

We got to stay at Aunt Kim and Uncle Ryan's house for a couple of nights. The kids love playing with the cousins and Aunt Kim is always fun too.

The kids loved jumping on the bounce house.

My sister met us in Vegas. It was fun just hanging out and we even got to see a late night movie and do some shopping. Thanks to Devo and Kim

blankets

"Give a day get a day" My sister found this sight on the internet. Lots of ways to help others. We made fleece blankets for kids in the hospital. 2 blankets each in exchange for a ticket to Disneyland. It was fun.

Quality time spent with mom

Jake really enjoyed helping even though he was too young for the free ticket

Britney and Jeremy even got in on the action

Sammy wanted to help too. Don't leave me out Tommy.

We even made the boys do two. It was funny listening to them talk about guy things while they did girl things.

Emily is 7

Emily is finally 7. She has been telling everyone since Christmas that it was almost her birthday. I was volunteering at her school saw the principal and he said to me, "one more day!"

She is very social, like her dad. She loves playing the piano this year as is learning very quickly. She loves dance too. She is doing great in first grade and wants to have everyone over to play.

she's growing up so fast.

She's all about puppies right now. We had grandmas new puppy for a month while we potty trained it and she was a great help with the process. She held Casper whenever she got a chance and would end up with a rash on her face. She's a little allergic but she didn't seem to mind.

She got her ears pierced TWICE. They were a little crooked so we finally convinced her to take one out and go back the next day. (thanks, Traci for being the deciding factor). Thanks to dad the numbing cream worked great and they look tons better.
She had friends over to help her celebrate. We didn't want to leave anyone out so we ended up inviting 11 girls. To my surprise, everyone showed up. Thanks to Britney we managed to get through all the fun and games in an orderly manner.

Can't invite Tommy to a party with a bunch of girls so we celebrated again later with cousins and Grandma Due. Emily had to have a Casper cake. Next time we're saving the coldstone cake for the family party.
Aunt Jill is always so much fun. Ice cream sundae lip gloss yummm!

Family party

The rest of the family came over for dinner. Sammy was willing to help everyone open their presents. The dice game has started to become our new gift giving tradition. Grandma surprised everyone with a hidden $200 in a not so favorite video. Wow!

When we were cleaning out Dad's shop, Troy suggested we put together tool boxes using his tools. So Jill put together a tool box for each of the grandkids from Papa. It made it feel like he was part of the party.
Even the little kids thought it was pretty cool. Jake kept picking up a tool and asking "What's this for mom?"