A Pegasaurus

Afton just told me that she wants a flying horse - "a PEGASAURUS"!

Kaiden's Birthday!

AUUUGGGGH! Kaiden is 13!!!!

I am in complete and total denial that I am the parent of a TEENAGER! But since it has to happen sooner or later, I am very happy to be the parent of THIS teenager!

Kaiden had a great birthday. We had tickets to the Draper UT temple open house with Grandma & Grandpa Morris. The temple was beautiful! Then we went out to Olive Garden for lunch. Kaiden said this was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!

Happy Birthday, Kaiden!

Here we are at the Draper Temple.



Just the kids in front of the temple.


Blowing out the candles on his birthday cake. It was Chocolate Lava cake with Mint Chip ice cream on top! Yum!



He loved his presents. The Bionacle that he has wanted for a LONG time and a Rip stick!

Here is the birthday boy blowing out the candle on his birthday banana!

The whole family enjoyed the breakfast of fruit salad and egg & bacon english muffins!

This was at Olive Garden for lunch.

Dad & Garrett at Olive Garden. Garrett thought he was BIG STUFF! (Look at how chubby he is!...Garrett, not Marshyl) :)

Breakfast

Luke decided that he wanted to make pancakes for breakfast today. He has helped Nic in the past and he made banana bread successfully (mostly) by himself a couple of weeks ago. So to told him to go ahead. I wasn't paying any attention to him and he would come and ask me if he had questions, so I assumed that everything we going well. He finished and although a little burned, they looked okay, so we sat down to eat.

Immediately after their first bites, the kids all started gagging and saying how horrible the pancakes were. I'm thinking..."they look okay, how bad can the REALLY be?" So I try a bite. Okay...they were the WORST pancakes I have ever tasted. They were WAY too salty. So I asked Luke to show me how much salt he put in and he went over to the 1/2 c. measuring cup and held it up! I got down the recipe and tried to explain that "tsp" is teaspoon, so he needed 1/2 tsp., not 1/2 c. He said, "I knew that, but I couldn't find the teaspoon, so I used that instead"! Come to find out he used the 1/2 c. for the baking soda too! YUCK! THAT was the horrible taste. All we could do this morning was toss the pancakes and have yogurt for breakfast instead. I guess we need a few more cooking lessons before I turn him loose in the kitchen alone again!

The Farming Game

We are studying our family history in school this year. Since a lot of our ancestors were farmers, I got this game. It is called the Farming Game and it is SO fun! This game is somewhat like Monopoly. You are a farmer with land and a few crops and you travel around the board buying and harvesting more crops and going through the years (each trip around the board is a year of time). Your end goal (to end the game) is to be the first farmer to net $250,000 in assets so that you can quit your job in town and farm full time.

Kaiden, Nic & I started a game yesterday and were up until midnight last night finishing it. We had a blast and will be starting another game tonight!

I just had to let you all in on this fun game!

Christmas 2008

Christmas this year was GREAT...actually, Christmas every year is great and this was no exception! We spent Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and a few days after at the cabin in Scofield. It has been Grandpa Cloward's dream ever since the cabin was finished to have the whole family together up there for Christmas. So this year, that is what we did. Krysti, Rachel & Taylor came in from Kentucky and the whole crew was there.

We opened our presents with Grandpa & Grandma Morris the week before Christmas when they were in town. They gave each of the kids a homemade Levi quilt for their beds. They LOVE their quilts. Kaiden's is backed with a bright space/planet print, Nic's with "Cars" the movie print, Luke's with a cowboy print, Afton's with Strawberry Shortcake and Kensi's with Disney Princesses. Garrett got a warm fuzzy puppy blanket. Marsh & I got a food dehydator. That is something that we have been wanting for a LONG time! After Christmas once we were home, we were remaking the kid's beds and putting their Levi quilts on and Afton said, "I hate the blue side (the denim side), why does it have to be blue. I only want to see Strawberry Shortcake!" So her quilt is upside down on her bed so that she can always see Strawberry Shortcake! (And of course since Kensi copies everything that Afton does, hers is upside down too, showing the princesses!)

Amy had us this year and got us some great family games. Disney DVD Pictionary, Cooties, an elephant/butterfly catching game (I don't remember the name of it), and "The Office" DVD trivia for Marsh & I. We love the games and have a great time playing them.

Here are the boys ready to open a gift from Amy.

Here are the girls with gifts from Amy. That is Kaiden's space quilt on the right.

Here are the kids & Grandpa Cloward at the cabin trying to find the gifts. Could they be in the dance room???

Kensi & Afton finding their stockings. It looks like they were good enough for Santa to come! Look at Afton's face. That is how excited she was to get a tutu.

Garrett hanging out with Aunt Bryndi.

Kensi posing in her new dancing dress & tu tu.

Afton's new dancing dress, ballet slippers & tu tu.

Kensi & Afton STILL posing in their dancing dresses. They actually wore these every day the rest of the time that we were up at the cabin. I kept asking them if they were cold and of course they told me "no." Like they really would have told me if they were!

Garrett's 1st Chritmas! He loved it!

The boys unpacking their stockings. The got hymn books with their names on them, and Bionacles, amoung other things.

They all went to put their Bionacles together right away!

Kaiden posing with his completed Bionacle.

The kiddos found the presents! They were in the dance room. Here they all are, posing by all of the presents. From left to right we have, Brynlee, Afton, Taylor (behind Afton), Kaiden holding Kensi, Luke, Nic & Ireland. All of the grandkids except new baby Doogle, he was eating. And Garrett, I don't know where he was.

Luke, Afton, Nic & Kaiden getting ready to start opening.

Kensi opening her Princess chest of dress-ups from Grandma & Grandpa.

Afton opening her stereo from mom & dad. She opened this right after Kensi opened the dress up clothes, so I think that is what she was expecting. Once she realized that it wasn't dress ups, but a stereo, she was NOT happy. She kept saying over and over, "but I don't WANT this, I didn't want a radio!" We finally convinced her that at stereo is very cool and now she can listen to music in her room and dance like she has been wanting to. She finally decided to like it after all. Look at her face.

Garrett liked opening presents! Actually I think he couldn't have cared less about the presents, he has just learned to grin every time he sees a camera.

Kensi trying on her new princess dress up clothes.

Luke got this basketball stand from Santa. He loves it and it has been so fun to have at home. For FHE last week we had a basket shooting tournament! Dad won, of course (only because mom let him! hee hee) but everyone gave him a run for his money!

Kensi got this little bike from Santa. She loves it.

Garrett's new dino toy from mom & dad. It makes noises and lights up when you put the balls in. He has a great time with it.

Here I am opening a pencil holder that Kaiden weaved for me. (You can't see it in the picture, but it is really cool.) It is just what I need on my desk, I can never keep track of anything to write with!

Grandpa, Grandma & Bryndi

After Christmas they all played outside in the snow. Here is Kaiden on the snow mobile.

Marsh getting ready to pull Taylor on the sled with the snowmobile. Cassadi was trying to figure out what they were doing.

Nic, Taylor, Marsh, & Kaiden - Fun in the snow!

Cassadi loves to go to the cabin. She loves having so much space to run and play. Even though it was cold up there, she stayed warm in her little shelter and slept in the coal room at night where it was nice and warm.

Here is a run down of a few of the things that everyone got. You all know that I have pictures of all of this, but I will spare you. I think the 30 already posted should be enough!

Dad - camping cot, MP3 player, huge tool set
Mom - sewing machine, membership to Curves, new card table & chairs for entertaining
Kaiden - camping cot, MP3 player, quad scriptures, remote control airplane
Nic - MP3 player, Heeley shoes (the ones w/ the wheels on them), Nerf machine gun, remote control truck
Luke - toy hunting rifle, basketball shooting stand, remote control race cars
Afton - stereo, beading & coloring kits, ballet bar & instructional DVD
Kensi - tricycle, dress up clothes, Magni-doodle
Garrett - green dino toy, a penguin bobble toy, island monkey toy

Draw me a potholder

With all of the artists in this house, we are going to have to do this! These are potholders made out of kid's artwork. The full directions are here on Sycamore Stirrings.