Do A Good Turn Daily

Josh received his Bobcat award at Pack Meeting this month. When they awarded Josh the Bobcat, they explained that as a Bobcat you should do a good turn daily.  So when I pinned on his award they turned him upside down so I could put on the pin right side up. 

When Josh was was put upright again, then pin was then upside down.  He was told he couldn't turn the pin correctly until he did a good turn.  It didn't take long for that pin to get turned right side up!

Josh and his awesome leaders Sister Boren and Sister Nitchman.

Give Kids A Smile Bowling Night

We have had a bad case of cabin fever over the last few weeks.  Man it has been cold!  We needed a night out.  A great opportunity came up when the Provo Dental Alliance had a charity bowling night at BYU.  We took all the kids and went.  It proved to be very fun.  As we pulled up to the Wilkinson Center, Kayden asked me, "Mom, did you remember to bring our bowling balls?"  I laughed as we do not own any bowling balls.  Then it dawned on me, Kayden does not remember EVER going bowling.  Let me just say, he loved it.  Kayden was even sad when he had to give his cool shoes back at the end of the night.  Every part of it the boys loved.  What was not to love?  There was a liter of root beer on each table, all you can eat pizza and pasta from Brick Oven and bowls of candy on the table as well.  Then the bowling.  The first round of bowing we just did our best--and I did.  I bowled a 130, my best score ever.  Jeremy only beat me by a couple of pins.  The second round of bowling had us doing all sorts of maneuvers and tricks:

One time we had to bowl while sitting down.  Above you see Jaxon and Jeremy taking their turn.

Jaxon laying on the floor after he was done.  Off to the right, you can see Jeremy trying to get up while he is getting a hug from Kayden.

Me bowling between my legs.  At the very least it didn't go in the gutter.

McKay trying a different approach to bowling between the legs.

Josh bowling while sitting down.  Lucky kid, he had bumpers!

Kayden giving his ball a nice "toss" down the lane.  He thought he was pretty awesome.

Jeremy bowling between the legs.

Bowling backwards.  Looking good, eh?

At the end of the night they had a raffle drawing.  We won a pocket knife and then won the last prize of the night which was a huge basket full of BYU stuff.  The boys were past excited: 

They also loved that they came home with extra root beer.  It was a fun night and it was great to be out of the house together as a family. 

12 Things At Christmas

Christmas was a busy time of year as always. So I decided to wrap up our Christmas Break as "12 Things At Christmas". Here is our count down:

12 Grandkids (and one great grandkid) in matching pajamas made by Grandma White.  This is fun tradition that my kids look forward to each year.

11 foot tall Christmas tree (10 foot tree with a 1 foot stand).  We were in need of a new tree this year and decorations.  We loved sitting in the family room at night with the tree lights on.  It was so relaxing after a crazy day.

10 minutes until the house was a wreck Christmas morning.  The kids (and Jeremy and I too) enjoyed unwrapping presents and surprising each other.  Below are some present highlights.

Kayden unwrapping with much enthusiasm.

Jaxon checking out some signatures on the basketball he received.  His ball was signed by BYU's Tyler Haws, Brandon Davies and Anson Winder.  He was very excited.

Josh and Kayden seeing what Santa brought them in their stockings.  Santa also brought them a bow and arrows.

McKay and Jaxon seeing what was in their stockings and checking out their gifts from Santa.  McKay received a Christmas Cactus and Jaxon also received a bow and arrows.

No one noticed for a few minutes, but Santa also brought us a Doodle Bug motor bike.  Jaxon wandered over to the tree and said, "What's this?" in disbelief.  The kids got to ride it Christmas morning but we haven't had any good weather since then to be able to ride it (even then they were riding it in the snow).  It will be fun this spring and summer to cruise around.

Kayden opened up a BYU football uniform and immediately put it on.  He is one cute kid.

Now back to our count down:

9 Days of illness (at least).  It started with Kayden who was sent home from school early the day before Christmas Break.  He was sick for 3 days.  They Jaxon got sick while skiing on the slopes:

 

He lasted half a day on the slopes before calling it quits.  He was down for 3 days or so.  Then Josh got sick (again--he was sick a couple of weeks before) and was down for several days and also had pink eye.  McKay got sick at the end of the break and ended up missing a day of school as well.  Thankfully, Jeremy and I stayed healthy.

8 hours spent in the car (really a little less) driving to and from Idaho Falls.  We spent New Years with my brother Paul and his family who live there.  My sister from Houston and her family were there too.  It was a nice relaxing holiday.  We all had a good time up there--despite the freezing temperatures.
 

7 nights of wrapping presents.  At least.  Jeremy was a little help.  He put the gift tags on the presents after they were wrapped and a bow placed on top.  I am just thankful he wrapped my presents.

6 Boys at a belated birthday party.  McKay's birthday party kept getting pushed back waiting for the Space Center to open.  It is now closed until further notice with no reopen date.  McKay decided to invited some friends to Chuck-A-Rama (yum?) and then to the Movie The Hobbit for his belated birthday party.  It was a fun afternoon for them.

5 people (pictured) skiing.  Jeremy took McKay skiing with Samantha (my niece), Bryan (my nephew), his brother Brady and Brady's wife Kelly (the one not pictured).

4 tired boys on Christmas Eve.  We took them to a trampoline hot spot called Hang Time.  We wore them out so they would be nice and tired come bed time.  Above they are all rested on Christmas morning.

3 Christmas Parties.  We had a party with Whites on Christmas Eve, the Culley party with all my cousins and their families as well as a party with my family the Haackes.  The kids received presents from their cousins and grandparents:

Josh got a cool Darth Vader jacket that zipped up and over his face like a mask and...

...Jaxon received a Storm Trooper jacket.  They both loved the gift and wouldn't take off their jackets.

2 boys with BYU basketballs on their wall.  A fun gift from Grandma and Grandpa Haacke.

And when all was said and done, there was 1 tired mom ready for the house to be put back together and ready for sick kids to be well.  It was a wonderful Christmas with lots of memories made.