Jake is 6

Jake is finally 6. He waited a loooong time! We were all set for a friend party that he and Emily had planned and then he changed his mind at the last minute. So his birthday started with the traditional donut and candle for breakfast. After school we headed home to open a couple presents. He loves his new bike for the race car sound affects it makes when you rev the handle bar. Next it was off to Wendy's for lunch. Then we headed off to the golf course to walk 3 holes. It was a little chilly but was still fun.

He finally decided to go celebrate with his cousin Tommy. Devo made the cobra cake/rice crispies. He is the bomb. It turned out perfect. Move over there is a new cake maker in the family. Jake was very pleased with it and said it looked real. The rice crispies were hard but the kids didn't seem to mind. The kids had fun with the pinata. (I think this is why he didn't want a friend party because he didn't want to share the candy) Grandma Due ended up decapitating the dinosaur in the end. The kids thought that was pretty funny.

Since he wasn't having a friend party we had to come up with something special to do fast. I had seen a commercial several times from Scales and Tails of UT., and they just happened to be free on Tues. so we booked a reptile show for a surprise for Jake. It was just the 4 kids and he was in Heaven the entire time! Evidence by the smile on his face in the pictures. He got to hold and touch snakes! He tells everyone he meets all about the snakes he held and is still flying high. It was actually a very entertaining and informative show. Well worth the money, and the look on Jakes face was priceless.

He also got to hold a blue tongue skink and turtle. He loved the gopher snake!

The blood python named Mary was a biter so they just got to touch that one. The albino reticulated python was a favorite of Jakes. Sam kept saying "I like snakes." Emily was a little timid holding the gopher snake and didn't want to put it around her neck. But when grandma did it she said she would give it a try. Fun was had by all.

Jake's favorite gift was a bug collector. That he opened immediately and went outside in the freezing cold to go hunting. His first bug was a worm. On sunday in the snow he caught a wasp. Good thing it was so cold it could hardly move, so the danger was minimal?

New Toy

Check out Devo's new snow plow. His dad came up in Jan. and decided we needed a bigger and better way to remove the snow from our entire driveway. We were afraid he would have a heart attack trying to clear our driveway of the ice. By the time Devo got the blade on the the 4 Wheeler there was no snow. Last month we got some snow and he had to try it out. There really wasn't enough snow but he had to use it once before he took it off for the summer.

It was kind of nice. It took him about 10 minutes to clear everything! Bring on the snow next year!

Disney On Ice

Britney wanted to go see Disney On Ice so she invited Emily to go with her. Emily was a little reluctant to go by her self but I think she really enjoyed herself and was glad she went. She loves her snow cone cup and her wand. She bought Jake a wand too. I was proud of her for thinking of her brother while she was out. Wow! She does like him.

She said her favorite part was princess Jasmine and Ariel. She liked the cool tricks they did with the prince. Thanks for the fun night Brit.

Creative Arts Contest

Each year the school has a creative arts contest and this was Emily's first year to enter. The theme was Live well, Eat well, Play Well. She worked really hard and was very creative in her tasks. She competed against the 2nd and 3rd graders. She won a prize in 3 of the 4 categories she entered. She won 2nd place for her sunset painting, 2nd place for her story called The Flying Duck, and 3rd place for a song she composed on the piano called "Playing Outside". She also won a total of $22. I think she may enter all the categories next year. We were very proud of her, and she was very excited.

Fun at Grandma Skinny's

The kids were out of school today so we decided to go sledding. We started in the field behind the 4 wheeler but we go stuck in the deep slushy snow. So we headed to Grandma's (well her lot up the road). It has a big hill of snow with some sled runs down the back side. Some other kids were playing on it. We made Devo go down first to see if it was safe. Then the kids each took a turn with Dad to get the feel. (This was their first experience down a hill) After that they were off on their own. They even went off the jump at the end. Even mom tried it at the end by herself and with Dad too!!! Lots of fun! The great thing about it was the kids did all the walking and we stood at the top to help. My kind of sledding.

Emily is 8

January 8, 2011 was a special day for Emily. It was her birthday and her baptism day!

It started quite early at 8am. Lots of family and friends came to celebrate her special day. She had lots of smiles all day long. We are very proud of her.

Big breakfast of sour dough pancakes(Emily's favorite)

Her favorite part of the day was "spending time with family."

Lots of snow

This was Monday before Christmas. Emily begged me to go play outside in the snow and make a snowman. Our snowman is a little scary, the snow wouldn't stick together. But we had fun trying, even if it was cold. Emily and I came in and Jake stayed in the back yard forever. I kept hollering out the door to see if he was okay. I don't know how he does it.

This was the next day. We were under almost 3 feet of snow. It was almost too deep for the snow blower and too deep to make a snowman. The kids enjoyed playing while Devo and I tried to dig ourselves out. They love to get blasted by the snow blower and blast Dad with snow balls while he's working. Devo even threw Maddie into the middle of the front yard and she actually looked like she was swimming trying to get out of the snow. We don't remember seeing so much snow at once since we've been here.