Life as we Live it

So, our life has been pretty normal lately. Here is some proof of that:

Julia is giving a speech to her class. This is her long term substitute teacher Mrs. Blood. Her teacher recently had a baby.

Benson loves to read to his sister. I stole the idea of posting a picture like this from a friend. I thought it was a great idea. You will notice that Phoenix is snuggling up with Benson.

Benson and Julia have been going to a soccer training camp after school. They are going to be starting the Spring season of soccer very soon. It will be fun to have them both on the same team! Here are a few action shots that I have:

An action shot of Benson running. He is the guy in the green shirt!

I thought this picture of Julia was so groovy! Look at her hair swoosh! Well, very soon she is going to be cutting most of it off for Locks for Love. I decided that I should post of few awesome pictures of her hair in action before it is cut!

I love it how Julia paused to give me a cute little smile! I sure love her smiles!

Bravery at its Best!

Earlier this winter my boys attempted two ice fishing trips with some friends. None of these trips would have been documented, but one of our friends took pictures and gave them to us. Maybe Ben chooses not to take any pictures because he knows maybe just maybe I will not let them go again!

This is where they ended up ice fishing. They initially were higher up the mountain.

Some deer

These pictures are all of their first location higher up the mountain. There is a video clip down below of what the weather conditions were like. Then they decided to go somewhere else...I wonder why.

Here is a little clip of the snowstorm they tried to fish in!

An Awesome Time!

We went up North this last weekend for what felt like a very quick trip! We were able to go to Disney on Ice, go to Ben's brother's endowment and spend time with family. It does not get much better than that!

Cecilia with the Mickey Mouse ears that Grandma bought her while we were waiting for Disney on Ice.

Here is Benson with his ears. The theme of the night was different celebrations.

Julia

Ben and my Dad

Cecilia cuddling up with her Aunt Emily!

Grandma Robyn with Julia waiting for Disney on Ice to begin.

Ben's sister Emily

The "Unbirthday Celebration"

Benson enjoying his evening!

The Valentines Day celebration

Grandpa Blau and Cecilia dancing to the music in their seats!

This was a picture of a the Hawaiian Luau celebration.

Julia and Ben's sister Emily enjoying the evening.

Christmas was the grand finale celebration! What an amazing night!

While we were up North we went to the temple with some of Ben's family for his Brother endowment at the Ogden Temple.

Ben's new Step-Mother Mary, his Brother Stephen and his Dad.

Ben and his brother Stephen. Stephen is going to be leaving to go to Honduras next month.
Ben and I in front of the Ogden Temple. This temple is very special to us. Both of our parents were married there, and we both received our endowments there. Next month they are going to be totally renovating it. It was neat to have our pictures taken in front of it before that happened.
This is my cute Nephew Cooper. I think he is one of the most happy babies I have ever seen! It was so fun to be able to see him again. We were able to hang out with him when we were up visiting at my Mom's.

I Can't Believe This!

I really can't believe that my youngest is now four years old! Where has the time gone! My kids are all growing up to quickly! She wanted to have a birthday party, but my rule has been that I will not throw a birthday party for my kids until they are in school. She had a friend over the night before her birthday thought, and that made her really happy. We are going to be going to Disney on Ice "for her birthday" later this week as well. We have never been, and so we are really looking forward to it!

Good morning birthday girl!!

She can't wait for her arm to be better so that she can go outside and ride her scooter!

She was pretty excited to be able to get these new princess dress up shoes.

She is wearing her new Dora dress up outfit and using her new princess camera!

Winger's is a very smart company! If you fill out postcards with your child's birthday information, they will send you a coupon for a free kid's meal! This always makes my kids want to go there for their birthdays! So, here we are at Winger's for her birthday dinner! I think we usually end up only going there for random birthdays.

This free dessert for her birthday was really as delicious as it looks!

She is waiting patiently for her Dad to blow out the candles on her Coldstone cookies. We had cake the night before with some friends, and so we were not in the mood for cake again. We thought it would be fun to try these out. They were delicious. After the dessert we shared at Winger's we each decided to just have a bite of the cookie and save the rest for tomorrow.

The candles are ready to be blown out! Yahoo! Happy birthday Cecilia!

Having Kids in School is the Best!!

Having kids in school is a life altering change. It has a lot of pluses. Here are some pictures of my kids involved in school events:

Julia and another girl from class received an award this month for being compassionate.

Benson and Cecilia are painting snakes at our schools recent Art Night. It was a blast. There were 9 awesome crafts and snacks. The best part was that everything was free!

Julia is painting a sun catcher wind chime. What a masterpiece!

Cecilia at home with all of her crafts.

Good job Benson!

Julia was very proud of her crafts!

At the entrance of our school there is a Gallery of student art work. Teachers pick a student from their class to showcase. While we were at the Art Night I took pictures of my kids pictures. It has been neat that their teachers both picked their artwork to display for the last several months.

This is Benson's rocket that he made in class with different shapes.

Julia's project

Benson had another special experience that he shared in class. He demonstrated how to do two different science experiments. In this picture he is answering questions.

As you can see, having a Kindergartner and First Grader keeps us very busy!

I Know I am Crazy...but I Have Proof that I am Not!!

So, I truly believe that you should never say, "Wow! Have you noticed how we have not been sick in a long time?" Some people do not believe that it can cause you any harm to say those words. My honey said them a few weeks ago, and then later that night Cecilia broke her arm...and then Benson and I caught a cold....then Ben had the cold....then Cecilia...and lastly Julia. Just don't say it! You don't want to know what will happen to you!

We were going to go on a date on the Saturday before Valentines day and while I was out picking up the babysitter Cecilia fell off the recliner. When I came home with the sitter she was crying, "Mom... My arm hurts!" I told her don't worry it will feel better soon. Later that night when we came home after our date the babysitter said that Cecilia had been mentioning the fact that her arm hurt really bad. I still not think anything of it. Then over the next several days I noticed that she would not use it. I took her into the doctor and well I have to say that recliners are very dangerous! She had two broken bones!
This is her first cast. When she first found out she was going to have a cast put on she said that she really wanted a pink one! So, she was very happy that they could give her a pink one. You can see that she had a lot of family members who signed it.

You will notice that she does not look to scared as the nurse is about to turn the tool on.

The second she turned it on that changed quickly and I put the camera down to go stand by her. It was pretty disturbing to her, and very loud!

Here she is afterwards! She was excited to be able to have a purple one put on next. They wanted to be able to put this "short arm" cast on so that she could use her elbow. Unfortunately, when we got home it started to slip and so we had to go in a few hours later to get cast number three!

This is her third cast. It is a long arm cast....it will be her buddy for another four weeks!