Gingerbread and Jacuzzi's

The kids and I got to have the Queen gingerbread house maker come to the house and help us do our houses just right. She came with "tackle box" in hand. Loaded with all the cute icing tips and colored icing you could ever want. Who is this "Queen of the Gingerbread house?" We know her as Nanny, but she is Stefanie Davis' Grandma and we were delighted to have her expertise as we spent a couple of hours decorating. Tanner was hilarious because he wanted to squeeze the icing by himself and he just didn't have enough house to put all of his frosting on. He did an awesome job and came up with a cute little cobblestone path made out of frosting (imagine that) and Nerds. The boys loved it and we were glad that Stef let us invade on her yearly tradition with her girls and their Nanny.

We enjoyed a rainy December night by going to Postma's and warming up in their Jacuzzi. We thought it was great to be so toasty warm in the water, while it was freezing out of the water. Whenever we got too warm we would hop out and take turns doing tricks on the trampoline and then running back to the warm water. The kids wont let me forget how much fun we had and can't wait to do it again.

Thankfulness

Warning: no pictures below (blogger is being retarded) just a long story!

I am ready for a holiday! Especially an eating Holiday! Yea. It is just nice to have the kids out of school with no schedules and just be together. (remind me I said that at the end of the weekend.)

To get us in the "Thankfulness" mood, this week we have asked the kids at dinner every night to tell us something that happened to them that day that they were thankful for. We started on Sunday, and it went fine. Monday I worked and when I came home the spirit in the home was not the peaceful, ready for family home evening, atmosphere that I was hoping for. Tanner had gotten in trouble for lying to his dad and then the night had gone in a downward spiral from there. So when we sat down to dinner and it was my turn to share my gratitude experience I told about a lady that had come to the dentist office and was so grateful for everything and how she had set such a good example for me. When it came to Tanner's turn he said, "nothing, I am grateful for nothing." I just let it go because I knew he was just bitter at his dad.

The next night, Tuesday, I had made some great personal efforts in keeping my cool with the "ungrateful" kid. I had to ask him 5 or 6 times to empty the dishwasher, clean up his room, vacuum the front room etc. . . And by that many times I am ready to lose it. . . . but I don't. We sit down to dinner and Luke goes first and then me. I am about to say what I am grateful for when RJ pipes up and in this exasperated tone says "mom, don't tell us about the lady at the dentist office again." (apparently I dragged on a little too much for his taste). (So I kept it short).

When it comes to Tanner, he says

"Nothing again, I am not grateful for anything." I just looked at him for a minute thinking, I am going to ship you off to some third world country where they have nothing and then maybe you can find something to be grateful for. But I am unfortunately the only grown up at the table (Kory was at Youngmen's) so I have to be mature and I decide to just ignore it and move on to the next person, when Tanner speaks up again.

"Wait I have something to be grateful for. I am grateful for the HOPE that someday my parents will be nice to me!"

Yep, pack your bags buddy! And who thought of this stupid idea to let your kids voice their "gratitude" at the dinner table? Just eating, no talking, from here on out.

Apple Day

We took a trip to Springdale on Saturday to pick some Apples and have some fun together.Kandice, Dave and Emmie joined us for a "pickin' good time."

Khloee was her dad's best little helper

We had to keep a close eye on this little apple picker who prefered to find a big pile of apples on the ground and then pick from those. They were easier to reach that way.

Tanner was a great picker from the ladder.

Luke was not to be outshined by his older brother on the ladder.

We came home with a bunch of good apples to use to build up our food storage with applesauce and apple pie filling and anything else apple that we can come up with.

I'm open for suggestions if you have any!! Or just drop by for a yummy Fuji apple fresh from Springdale.

Turek Reunion

Labor Day weekend was spent with my side of the family on Cedar Mountain. The weather was perfect (at least while we were there) and we all had a great time.

My little family didn't get to the mountain until Saturday afternoon because of the Peach Day's Volleyball tournament. (The real fun didn't start until we got their anyway). Saturday afternoon was spent visiting with my brothers and sisters I haven't seen in a while. Rick brought his satellite dish and the men sat out in the meadow watching the BYU football game. They loved the game and were grateful to Rick for his foresight.

Sunday we had our own Sacrament meeting, Sunday school, & Primary.

(Singing time)

I was one of the nursery leaders so Kandice and I got to hang out with the little ones for an hour.

After church and lunch we all drove to Hatch and visited some places that were special to my dad while he was growing up.

Sunday night we watched Madagascar 2 and the Turek Reunion movie that Morgan (my talented niece) put together.

Monday was spent playing games and cleaning up all our stuff so we could head home. Right before we left we had a pull up contest (which none of the girls could do one) ( Some of us further away than others) So I am determined to be able to do 1 pull up by the next Turek Reunion. Bring it on girls!!

We all loved our weekend and the memories made together

Weekday getaway

We got to escape to the cabin one afternoon for a few hours of family time. We rode 4-wheelers out to observation point (East Zion) trail head and then we hiked the trail for a while until the kids were tired.

We spent lots of time hunting . . .
For These little guy's.

We got the kids to stop lizard hunting long enough to take a quick photo.
I thought it was a great day for Kory to skip work and hang out with us. We loved spending the weekday with our dad. I wish we could make it a weekly tradition!

Dreaming of our own pool

Summer wouldn't be summer without lots and lots of swimming. So while we are dreaming of a pool of our own, right out our back door, we will just use everyone else pools.

Thanks Cheri, Martha, Payton's Grandma Julie, Hurricane City & Washington Rec Center, for giving us a place to cool off and spend all of our hot summer day's.

T-ball

I got to coach Luke and RJ again in T-ball this year. Luke improved a lot from last year and loved to play. RJ on the other hand wanted badly to play last year so I signed him up so I didn't have to deal with him crying about not getting a turn. I should have stuck with the reverse psychology method and told him he couldn't play because telling him it was his turn just turned him off and he had no desire to play. So he didn't. He still looked cute in his hat though
Luke was my little homerun king