Bradie Boy hits Double Digits!

It's hard to believe that our little "Blondie-Blue" is now 10 years old. Say good-bye to the single digit years! Brad was lucky enough to have his cousins from Washington here to help celebrate his birthday. He also invited one of his friends, Mitchell, to join the fun. He decided he wanted a chocolate cake with turquoise icing and then to go to a place called "Monkey Island". It's a cute little fun center that just opened here in Lehi with lots of blow-up bounce houses and slides. They also had air hockey and skee ball etc. The kids had such a blast. We played from 5:30 until 9:00 p.m. Brad loved all the wonderful presents and basked in all the attention. Today (on his real birthday) we will fix him a dinner of his choice (speghetti of all things) with Texas Toast and a strawberry spritzer drink. We sure are grateful to have this fun, energetic little man in our home:)

Ice Skating and Pizza with Ralph Cousins

Last Saturday, the 19th, we had visitors from Washington and Nevada. Deanna, Cody, Zeke, and Jason drove down from Washington and Don, Jill, Nick, Whit, and Reagan came from Nevada. We were all going to go tubing or sledding but we didn't have enough snow so we went ice skating instead. After that we went to the Pizza Factory for lunch. Fun day with only minor accidents (actually, I think Dennis was the only casualty). He totally wiped out and really hurt his back. This first picture is of Ava seranading us in the car on the way up to Bountiful.

Valentines Day-2011

We had a wonderful Valentines Day (we started early by giving the kids their chocolates on Sunday). Monday, we put some balloons up and the kids got heart pens and pencils-nothing big. When Dennis got home we went to the Olive Garden for supper. The wait was an hour long but we waited it out and ended up in a room all to ourselves. (I think they saw our rowdy boys and girl and decided for the sake of everyone else to exile us to "the room"). One of our waiters, Shakeel, was very much gay but that didn't stop Ava from flirting with him the whole time. She kept saying, "You know that guy with the ear-rings? He is sooooo nice." She would smile her flirty smile whenever he came to our table.

The last two pictures are showing what happens when Ava dresses herself. Pink socks with sandals, pajama pants, dress, crown, ear-rings and LOTS of make-up! She felt so beautiful;)

Fun-filled Weekend with Ralph Cousins

We love it when family comes to visit. January 14 and 15 we were privileged to hang out with Don and Jill and their cute family and Dale and Kayla as well. Friday night Don and Jill and kids came over to play and visit. We had pizza and painted the girls' fingers and toes;). Miss Ava ran and slipped on some ice and had the biggest goose-egg ever! It seriously looked like a horn was growing out of her head. After a few minutes of screaming, and tender-loving care, Aunt Jill distracted her with the painting of nails. She was fine for the rest of the night.
The next day, we met up with them and Dale and Kayla in Bountiful to go bowling. Everyone had a good time! (Except for the flat tire that awaited us after we left the bowling alley). We were so grateful to have Don and Dale there with us-they both helped Dennis change and fix the tire! I wish I had taken a picture of them all working together on it. I was also very grateful that this happened when Dennis was with us (another almost unnoticeable "tender-mercy" from the Lord)

"I Wish the Whole Church Could Be Like My Dad"

Ethan bore his testimony on Sunday. The next day I called the YW President about the upcoming activity and she told me how much she enjoyed his testimony. She said she was telling her mother about it and they both started crying. She said her husband walked in and asked if she was okay. Ethan was telling the ward of how he and his dad were talking on their way to the winter camp-out with the scouts. They were having a conversation about music and then Dennis said, "Well, do you want to know what I listen to?" and he turned it to Christian rock (his cd player is broken-he normally loves to listen to church cd's-which of course Ethan didn't mention). Then Ethan tells the Ward, "I was just thinking how I wish the whole Church could be like my Dad. I just wish we could all surround ourselves with good things". The YW President said, "really, what 14 year old boy says what's in his heart like that?" I love my Ethan. What you see is what you get. He's got a good heart, I hope he continues to seek to surround himself with "good things".