Got my Purple Belt today!

I'm officially a purple belt in Kenpo Karate!  It is a life dream, fulfilled!  I always wanted to learn karate, but it seemed it would never work out for me.  Then the planets aligned, and I got this amazing experience to learn, and now I'm up to Purple Belt.  Plus I got to meet some AMAZING people!  And made some really good friends!  This has been a wonderful day.  My hear is full of gratitude!  A special thanks to Ted Hoskins for all he did for us!  (He's in the middle.) and to Chad Jardine for keeping it going!  Us "Karate Gals" are having a blast!  And we are learning so much!  We're pretty good!  Now on to Blue Belts.....

We applied for the Amazing Race show!

Now, chances are SUPER slim that we will get on, but we are huge fans, and thought..."what the heck", lets just shoot a quick video, fill out the stuff, and send in our audition.  And who knows???  Maybe we could get in?  It would sure be fun!

Some people were wanting to see this, so I'm posting it.  Here was our video.

Here are the pics we submitted too.

We'll know late June if we made call backs.  We aren't holding our breath, but hey... a person can dream, can't they?  :)

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Breanne dressed up for Dr. Suess Day at school.  One Fish (her), Two Fish (the fish on the sticker), Red Fish (her), Blue Fish (the sticker).  I thought it was pretty creative!  She is so cute!

Joy School Field Trips to the Xray dept of the hosp, and Winco. And a PH experiment.

For the letter "X" we went to see Xrays at the hospital.

For the letter "W" we went to Winco and saw all sorts of "w's" there.

Testing Ph levels for fun!  Interesting, and COLORFUL!

3rd grade Field trip with Josh's class to the Clark Planetarium. Cool Place!

A visit to the State Capitol!

 Dad wanted to come here to see the Legislature in Session.  And while he got to go in, and even go down and sit on the house floor with our legislator, the boys and I went exploring!  We had a lot of fun!

Winter Dance Session Recital

An ATTEMPT at a newer family pic. I think we need to keep trying.

Joy School Field Trip to Hale Center Theater

One of the Best Field Trips I have ever been on!!!  They toured us all around their theater, like back stage, where they keep the costumes, and practice.  They also did a fun light and sound show for the kids.  Then at the end, the kids got to put on a play.  So FUN!

I want to make me one of these for Halloween!  How cool are they!?  Amazing head dresses.

I was crazy and had the boys make tool boxes! It was fun though!

Raspberry Freezer Jam.. YUM!

The Ward's Valentine's Day Party...SO FUN!

Joy School Field Trip to the Bean Museum

What do you do with your life between....

Dishes

and 

Laundry???

Ugh, sometimes it feels like that is what life is.... just some stuff I do in between doing either dishes or laundry.  I'm blessed to have both a dishwasher and washing machine!  Those people who don't have one probably feel like that's all they do!  Oh well...  Guess that is part of having a big family!  And that is totally worth it!

New Pics for the Wall

This is the face he gave me when I told him to smile.  "Cheese!"  I love it!

Handsome kid.

Super cute!

Mommy Muffin Day with Josh

I love Mommy Day with the kids.  It is so fun to get to see what the kids are doing at school, what their desk looks like and read all their fun writing.

I  got teary eyed when I read this.  It is a "poem" project that they did.  I just couldn't be more proud of his answer's to these "fill in the blanks."  I mean, he could have put almost anything, and he put, "I hope: I live righteously."   Hope you can read them.  What a great kid!  I hope he lives righteously too.  

A quick visit

Adam and Christine's family came up for a quick visit.  While the reason was not so fun... (A funeral for Christine's young cousin), it did offer us a day to see them.  I didn't get many pics.  But we all had fun playing games, having good food, and just laughing and talking together.  It's good to have such awesome family.

The girls, playing dress up.  So cute.

Happy New Year!!!

It's 2012!!!  And due to illness, we didn't get to do our usual thing with Melissa and Jake's family.  (Hopefully next year..)  Anyway, we had a fun time with Kip & Linda and David & Missy, who came over for a bite to eat and some games.  (But I didn't get the camera out soon enough to get a pic of that.)  And then come "count down" time, we had fun toasting with the kids.

And banging Pots and Pans.

The kids love New Years.  They love that they get to stay up so late!  Happy New Year everyone.  I have a feeling that it's going to be a good one!

Little Einstein's...Yeah!

Breanne's creativity never ceases to amaze me.  One day, she decided to make all the Einstein's Characters, and some characters from Toy Story 3, out of sticky notes.  They played with them for hours.  Why do we buy toys???  I also love when siblings play so well together!  Super cute.

Playing the piano.  He's so cute.

It seems I missed a pick from Scott's birthday.  This is the orange he got for breakfast.  And because we usually stick candles in waffles or pancakes or something...we stuck them in the orange he wanted.  I thought it was pretty fun.

Bye Bye Mullet

Look at this cutie!  He is growing so big!  And his hair was also growing....so long....in the back.  And despite thinking that if I cut it, that would mean admitting that my baby was old enough for a hair cut...I cut it.

Just buzzed that Mullet right off.

And I think it looks much better!  It actually made him look more baby-ish.  So that was good.

I tell ya what, these kids.  They are so much fun.  I feel so blessed to have these moments with these babies.  And for all the great things that come from them getting bigger, and more capable, I miss having them be babies.  Look at those cheeks.  Awe...  Glad I picked motherhood.  Wouldn't change a thing about my life.