Pinewood Derby

We all went to our very first Pinewood Derby last night.  Lee and Clark had been working on Clark's car for a couple of weeks.  Clark was very excited for the derby.  And being the sweet boy that he is, he was excited that we would all be there too.  I haven't taken the whole family to Pack meetings, but last night was a good exception.

Clark let Lee design the shape of the car, and Clark designed the artistic touches. Clark placed 5th out of 13 kids.  Clark was a good sport about getting 5th place; and with 13 kids 5th isn't bad.  Well, 13th wouldn't be bad either for that matter!


The kids really enjoyed watching the races...52 of them actually.  Okay, so my kids didn't watch ALL of heats, but they enjoyed many of them.




Shanna loved getting Clark's car after its race.


Clark and Lee. Dad's first pinewood derby with his oldest son, with many more to come!


Some of the Cub Scouts.  They all look so young!  And of course they are.  Sometimes I forget that an 8 year-old is still a young kid. Definitely a photo for the photo album (when I finally print one).


Lee brought one of his boyhood pinewood derby cars and raced it against Clark's.  Lee won.

Babysitting Weekend

A few weeks ago Lois told me about an upcoming trip her family was going to take to Philadelphia. I brought up the amazing suggestion (if I say so myself!) that she and Jeff go by themselves and I'll watch her kids.  Well, she loved the idea and they had a fun get-away last weekend.  Clark asked if they went on a honeymoon; too funny.

Shanna got a hold of the camera one morning...






Baby Blake slept so well for us! Grover was pretty good too. I didn't know he was so shy.


Cal doing a "storytime" with Reed and Shanna.


Blake!


I love that Elden and Blake like to play with each other!


Funny enough, with two extra kids for the weekend, we had a great time!  Blake and Reed enjoyed themselves.  Sacrament meeting wasn't too bad either.  There was some extra squiggling, but it was Elden that was making the most noise! Lois and Jeff met up with us last Sunday evening for dinner.  Lois spoiled me by staying an extra day when they came to pick them up (they left Monday night).  We had a fun trip on Monday to Sharp Shopper and watched Rachael Ray...exciting, I know! 

When Lois left on Monday she took Haley with her.  I was sad that she was gone, but Haley seemed to have a wonderful time at Lois'.  It was weird not having Haley here for a few days...and Elden and Shanna were bouncing all over the place!  I guess Haley has a calming factor?

Elden has been building little Lego creations of his own lately...and they're so cute!








Since the boys didn't have school on Friday we went to DC, picked up Haley and swapped going to the temple with Lois and Jeff.  Lee and I also went to the commissary and Aldi for some February groceries. If all goes as planned we'll stay in budget for groceries in January!  Well we better...the money is all spent!

We met up with Lois at a shopping center.  There was a little music/play group thing going on in the mall atrium.  After we stopped at McDonald's and Lois and her friend treated all of the kids to a snack.  Thanks!  My kids loved it!


The night before we went to DC the PTA showed Cars 2 at the school.  It was a fun night. The PTA gave away 50 door prizes!  Clark and Elden won some fun Cars 2 paper/pens/paint things.  My friend Laura's kids each won something! We actually didn't stay the entire time because the speakers weren't broadcasting the sound very well and it was pretty noisy.  Lois had rented Cars 2 so we watched it Friday night while she and Jeff were at the temple. Well, I watched a little.  I took a nap so I could drive home.

When we left DC I drove through a little snow storm on the way home.  Thankfully we arrived home just fine. It took over three hours to get home though, when it normally would only take two.  I am glad people in DC are very cautious though when it comes to icky freeways! I couldn't believe a movie my brother shared about the snow storm in Utah this weekend! Keep it muted to by-pass the swearing.  And all this happened in front of some guy's house! CRAZY!


I have been enjoying my primary class.  I team-teach with another lady and I thought that would be weird, but it's great. We teach the sunbeams and we need two people in there--mainly because there are quite a few of them. They are sweet kids. I taught the lesson a week ago and really enjoyed the spirit that was in the room.  It was great telling each of the children one by one that they lived in Heaven before they were born and that each of them is a special daughter/son of God.  I still love Relief Society, but I also am loving Primary too!  Plus, there are so many primary songs I need to learn!

Besides everyday life, not much else is going on.  I hope our last tax form comes soon as I would like the taxes submitted soon. Also, I want it to snow and to have a snow day!  We FINALLY bought sleds.  Three of them actually.  We've never bought them before because they were always so expensive. Our previous neighbors were nice and let us use theirs...or we would use some pool floaties I bought for a really cheap price. But of course now that we have sleds, there is no snow!  The little amounts of snow that have come down this winter melted quite quickly. At least it's only January.

My Friend April

First off, some random pictures.




My friend April from my old ward in Missouri visited me last week.  They visit the local resort here every year or so, which happens to be about seven miles from my house!  It was so fun seeing her and her family. 




They came again a couple days later for another visit.  Thanks for stopping by April!  We loved seeing you!!!

Bread

Though my sister Lena has been encouraging me to do this for several years, I just started making my own wheat bread. I bought 50 pounds of wheat, pulled out my wheat grinder a few weeks ago and I'm still baking bread!  It's been fun using the wheat flour in other things took like brownies and pumpkin muffins.

When Lee's parents were here last fall they bought me some cans for bread "pans".  I didn't think I had any, turns out I did!  But I like baking the bread in these cans.  It's fun to have round bread!  I still buy bread for the boys' lunches.  Maybe this fall when 4/5ths of my kids are in school they'll be using homemade bread for sandwiches. 








My mom would sometimes make scones when she made homemade bread.  I made some too.  I didn't have a block of cheese, just shredded.  So I stuffed the scones with shredded cheese.  They were yummy.  I like putting the cheese on the scones AFTER they're made, but this was a good alternative.






Here's to years of bread making!