Josh's Science Project

This year for Josh's science project, he decided to see if he could teach our dog, Suki, how to read.  It spent a few weeks working on it with her.  He made flash cards that had basic commands that she already knew.  At first he would start out showing her the card and reading the card to her at the same time.  Then he slowly stopped reading the card in hopes that Suki would recognize the command without him saying so.  He documented her progress:

 After she did the commands in a random order several times, Josh would give her a treat.  Suki thought this was the best science project ever!

 Here is a video he made of his final results.

 He also made a board to display of all his research, findings and actual experiment.

LPHS Girl's Preference

McKay was asked to Lone Peak's Girl's Preference this year.  He has a good time on his date.  They went snow shoeing/snowball fight in the afternoon with lunch and then dinner and the dance in the evening.

McKay and his date all dressed up for the evening.  His date's name is Taylor and she used to live in our neighborhood before moving to Orem a couple of years ago.  They have stayed in touch and have remained friends.

The guys in the group.  McKay was glad to be in the same group as some of his friends.  The top picture they were being a bit silly and the bottom picture you can see just how handsome they are.  From left to right: Joe, Taylor, Lucas and McKay.

Taylor and McKay

 

Group photo of good looking kids in a winter wonderland.  Left to right: Taylor, McKay Bryanna, Joe, Marian, Taylor, Hannah and Joe.

Crazy Winter

This winter we have seen more snow than we have in years!  As soon as one storm finishes, another storm is lined up to come in.  It seems like we have been constantly shoveling snow and battling ice on the driveway.

This was the snow that was piled on top of McKay's car during one particular storm.  This storm was quite a shock as the weather man said there would be a "trace" of snow.  When we started shoveling when there was 9" of snow and then it snowed a couple of more inches throughout the day.  It was hard to get anywhere or do anything besides sit inside and keep warm.  Brrr.  Thankfully this was a weekend storm and we didn't have to venture out for much.  We are ready for spring at our house!

Wolf Boy

Kayden received his Wolf award at Pack Meeting tonight.  We are super proud of him!

Officially an Eagle

After Jaxon's Eagle Board of Review had been postponed a couple of times, he was finally able to officially complete the Eagle Award process and is now an Eagle Scout. We will have an Eagle Court of Honor in a couple of months for him to receive his award.

Proud parent moment.  Jaxon worked hard on his project and merit badges and got everything wrapped up so he could receive his award.

Brother Bill Tooke was instrumental in keeping Jaxon on track to get his Eagle.  This was a proud moment for him as well.

Christmas Shenanigans

We had a wonderful Christmas this year.  We were able to spend time with the Haackes and the Whites and great memories were made.

Christmas Eve

We decided to change things up a bit this Christmas Eve by doing a service project for the Food and Care Coalition with the White Family.  We made about 10 ready to heat and eat casseroles.  We split the ingredients of the casseroles up among the family and then got together Christmas Eve morning and put them together.

 Savannah and Josh cutting up cooked chicken.  Who knew they were so handy in the kitchen?

 Maddie, Jessica and Amy (Jessica's friend) helping with the chicken.

 Jaxon stirring in melted butter into all the cracker crumbs.

 

 The whole gang with the finished products.  After we finished, everyone delivered them to the Food and Care Coalition and then went to lunch.  After lunch they went to see the latest Star Wars movie Rouge One.

I stayed home and got to hangout with this cutie.  His mom stayed and Grandma's house because his little brother Mason was sick, and his dad went to the movie with the big kids.  So it was just the two of us.  We watched Curious George, ate lunch, read Christmas books and took a nap.

Later that night we went to Grandma White's house for dinner and Christmas games as well as exchanging gifts.

After all the kids put on their new pajamas that Grandma White had made for them, we played games.  For one of the family games we played our own version of "Watch Your Mouth".  We had to insert dental mouth guards into our mouths and then say Christmas phrases while our teams tried to guess what it was we were saying.  It was funny and entertaining!

We also did the traditional $5 gift exchange game.  Above Kayden is choosing which gift he should open.

Christmas Morning

We had church at 1:00, so we stayed home Christmas morning and it was wonderful.  We had a nice time opening gifts and having Grandma and Grandpa White som

The majority of our Christmas this year was in the form of a refinished basement.  We decided to make better use of the space down there.  The boys slept down there Christmas Eve night.  They were pretty excited to have the basement done in time for Christmas.  They were all set to head upstairs and see what they got for Christmas.

Another view of the basement.

Suki with a Christmas bow.  I don't think she liked it too much though.

 Josh and Kayden opening presents as well as the boys all opening a family gift.

McKay and Jaxon opening presents.  Jaxon and his Spurs.  McKay got money toilet paper and a money blanket.  I got some odd looks and stares from him.  What do you get a teenager??

Kayden with all the presents he received this year.  He had a great Lego Christmas and spent the following days after Christmas building Lego sets.

Jaxon's Christmas was basketball themed.  He got a few Spurs things and also some new basketball shoes.

 Josh received a wide variety of gifts.  He will be kept busy for a long time!

McKay also received a variety of gifts from a new shaver to a doughnut maker.

After opening presents, McKay laid down on his new blanket and took a nap!

Jaxon explaining the gifts he got for Christmas.

What Kayden got for Christmas.

Josh's Christmas.

McKay shows his gifts.

Family Gifts--in addition to the basement.

Jeremy's Christmas.

I was also spoiled this year.

The Day After Christmas

The day after Christmas Jeremy and the boys went skiing and then we got together with all the Haacke's that could make it (we missed the New Jersey family) and exchanged gifts with the cousins and gave to and received gifts from Grandma and Grandpa.  It is always great to be together.

McKay and Jaxon checking out what they got for Christmas and observing all the gift giving at Grandma's house.

We had a wonderful Christmas holiday!  We just wish that we had a little bit more of a break from school.  Just over a week is not enough!

Gingerbread House Construction

The boys and cousins got quite silly while building gingerbread houses.  They were also very creative.  There was some serious concentration and creativity going on during construction:

 

They were serious until it was time to take pictures of the completed house:

McKay trying to show off his house but yet not giving me a normal smile without much prodding and many threats.  His house was very detailed down to the murder scene outside the front door.  One gingerbread man is dead and the other is holding the murder weapon.  Nice and full of Christmas cheer.

Jaxon was no better than McKay.  I couldn't get him to cooperate for a picture for anything.  I finally threatened him that he would be put on the naughty list.

The rest of the photo shoot went something like this:

 Good picture, except McKay can you move your head so the light won't block it?

 Yeah, that's much better.  Not.  Let's try putting your faces by your gingerbread houses.

   Okay, not what I had in mind.  Really, McKay?

 Can ya'll look at the camera?

 Maybe from this angle?  Nope.

 Come on! One more time?

I give up.  You're all excused.

So I got shots of the finished products without the kids.

Starting at the top left: McKay's, Jaxon's (he was obviously in a cheery mood).  Bottom left to right: Josh's and Kayden's.  Gingerbread houses without their creators are much more cooperative.  It's all about the memories, right?