Cub Scout Graduation

After attending Cub Scout Pack Meetings for 11 years straight, our family has graduated.  That is right, Kayden attended his last pack meeting.  Definitely a milestone for our family!

That's right.  He crossed the bridge from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts.  He also earned his Arrow of Light award.  Good job Kayden!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a nice Thanksgiving break.  The kids were more than glad to be out of school for a few days and we had fun with family that was in town.

Brady and Kellie were here from California and I couldn't get enough of their cute munchkin, Ava, that was born earlier this month.  I held her whenever I could.  She is about the sweetest thing ever!  Kellie captured us taking a snooze together.

 

 Josh and Ava getting to know each other.

While black Friday shopping with my mom, we ran into some good friends of ours.  Nikki was one of my best friends growing up and she lived next door to me.

Weston and Jennise and their family stayed with us the whole weekend.  The kids loved being together and we loved having them here.  Jennise coordinated a temple trip with the kids.  It was nice for them to serve in the temple together.  (Olivia, Nick, Josh, Jaxon, Emma and Maddie)

Chocolatiers

Jeremy and I had a date night where we had fun being chocolatiers.  It was fun being with good friends and making chocolates throughout the night.

Josh is 14!

Everyone should get to celebrate their birthday in their own way.  Josh loves Costa Vida nachos so it was no surprise when he asked if we could go to Costa Vida for lunch.
 

So that is what we did.  I checked Josh out of school during lunch and we hung out together eating Costa Vida.

The expressions on these faces are priceless.  Josh is clearly annoyed by his brothers, Jaxon was being a goof and Kayden wanting to get in on the fun.

Josh has been wanting a nice drone for a long time.  That is one reason why he wanted to earn his Eagle Scout rank before his birthday.  He received the drone for earning his Eagle award as well as for his birthday.  (Josh had to pitch in to pay for some of it too.)  He was one happy kid when he finally unwrapped it.

Nothing says "Happy Birthday" more than an ice cream cake from Cold Stone with Spanish writing on it.  Feliz Cumpleaños Josh!

14 Things We Love About Josh:

1. He loves his friends.  And he is a good friend in return.
2. He makes his bed--with pillows--every day (almost).
3. He works hard in school and school is important to him.  He often asks me to help him study for tests and quizzes.
4. He is very aware of peoples feelings.  He always tries to make everyone happy.
5. He likes to stay very organized.  
6. He is a good brother.  He has a lot of patience for his little brother and he and Jaxon have gotten a lot closer over the last few months.
7. He is great helper.  He always does what he is asked and does a great job.  He is also great about asking what he can do to help out.
8. Josh is very respectful.  
9. He still loves basketball.  He decided against the competitive league this year and is a manager for the school team.  He wakes up early every day to be to school by 5:45 to help with practice.  He is going to play rec ball with his buddies this year.
10. I love listening to him play the piano.  I am not sure he loves playing the piano as much as he used to though.  Hopefully he will keep with it!
11. He has picked up on tennis this year and has really enjoyed it.  That is one thing about Josh is that he is always willing to try new things and he usually enjoys it!
12. He is still so much like his dad.
13. I love listening to him laugh, especially when he is with his brothers and they are all laughing together.
14. He makes sure that he always gives us a hug goodnight.  (This boys has turned into quite the night owl!)

Happy 11th Birthday Kayden!

Kayden celebrated his 11th birthday.  He is excited to be in 11 year old scouts and to go on camp outs with his dad.  Kayden had a whole day dedicated to him:

 

He got checked out of school for lunch.  He wanted to get takeout at Costa Vida.  He also requested a nacho bar for dinner so we picked up some queso.  We also picked up some doughnuts for his class on the way back to school.

 

11!

Dad had to show "11" with his fingers too, only he put his fingers up his nose.  What he doesn't do for a laugh!

Kayden received a Classic Nintendo for his birthday.  He is excited to play the classic version of the Zelda games.

Kayden asked for  grasshopper pie for dessert.  He and his brothers are quite silly.  Happy birthday Kayden!  We sure love you!

11 Things We Love About Kayden:

1. He is very tenderhearted.  I still get hugs first thing in the morning and last thing at night.  This mom enjoys a good hug!
2. He is loving karate.  He is quickly moving ranks in belts and is enjoying his black belt training.
3. He loves to read and is very good at it.  After much convincing, he finally read the Harry Potter series this year.  ("Why didn't you tell me these books were so good??")
4. He is a good student in both grades and in behavior.
5. He loves to help out in the kitchen.
6. He thinks the world of his brothers, even if they don't always get along.
7. He thinks I am an awesome cook and asks why I'm not on cooking shows.
8. He still enjoys playing baseball, flag football and basketball.
9. He loves the Jazz and has declared himself the biggest Jazz fan in the house.
10. He is a loyal friend.  He has a hard time understanding why everyone isn't.
11. He is a "Challenge accepted!" kind of kid.  

Piano Guys

We had a credit that we needed to  use at the Tuacahn amphitheater in St George that we couldn't use in the summer.  We found out that the Piano Guys were going to perform there so we decided to take the opportunity to go see them in concert.  We spent the weekend down there relaxing and having fun.  We slept in on Saturday and got up and made breakfast.  We stayed in our PJs and watched the BYU game, which was on early.  Bonus of the weekend was that BYU won!  Jeremy and Josh took off and went to go and play some tennis while Jaxon, Kayden and I went to the pool.  Kayden did some swimming, but mostly was in the hot tub with Jaxon and I.  The weather was great, about 65 degrees), but that wasn't swimming weather for me.  The hot tub was nice though.  We also played some ping pong at the clubhouse.  We were pretty bad at ping pong--especially for having a ping pong table at home!  After we all got back and showered and dressed, we went to dinner at a great Mexican place and then went to Tuacahn Theater to watch The Piano Guys. 

We LOVED the concert and had a great time.  Very entertaining.  We are already to go and see them again!

Winter Clear Creek

Kayden was able to attend Clear Creek overnight with his fifth grade class.  I wasn't able to attend with him, but his teacher posted some pictures:

 Kayden with is teacher having fun working on projects that were also yummy!

They also had some fun playing some Minute to Win It games.  Kayden was trying to slide an Oreo down his face and into his mouth.  He can't wait to go back for summer Clear Creek camp!

Time Warp

Josh found an old cassette tape and had no earthly idea what it was.  He was honestly confused.  It was fun explaining to him how they work and then telling him about the 1980s version of an iPod: A Walkman.

Board Breaking

After Kayden came home from Karate with a board he had karate chopped, Jaxon decided that he could break the board with his head.  See the results above.  One thing Jaxon didn't take into account is how loud the board sounded when it snapped.  It was pretty funny.