E is for Energetic Scotty Loves Cars

Scotty is our little ball of energy. He seems to always be running somewhere. We left him with some good friends, The Lowes, when we went on our family cruise in April. While he was there he discovered CARS! I feel bad that we didn’t figure that out sooner. He was always surrounded by My Little Ponies and Littliest Pet Shops at our house. Now he puts his cars in the Pony houses like a garage and puts the Littliest Pet shop animals in the back of his trucks and makes lots of car noises as he plays. Vroom, vroom!

He likes to play tackle with Conner. He backs up until he bumps into something and then runs full speed at Conner & then Conner topples over with Scotty.

He also loves to sing! He knows lots of songs and loves to sing/yell to whoever will listen. He enjoys going to nursery at church and we recently started a playgroup with 4 other boys that live in the houses right by ours. He's learned all of Sophie's Let's Play Music songs and so I'm hoping he'll want to do piano too in a couple years.

He likes electronics. He enjoys borrowing Conner’s Ipod &our IPad and playing Traffic Rush and Angry Birds.

He loves playing outside. He would be out there all day if there was someone to always watch him. We got him a deal on a used mini electric 4 wheeler and he loves to ride that around with two of his little buddies who also have them.

He wants to be big like the other kids. He won’t sit in his highchair anymore and we got a crib net for his crib to keep him in . Before we got that, he would get out of his crib and play at 2 in the morning. I am thankful for that crib net!

He loves chocolate, reading books and he’s a really good talker!

R is for Rosie our new Black Kitty

Our neighbors had a litter of kittens in the spring. Sophie was over their every day holding them. She kept telling us they were for sale for free. We decided we weren’t going to get one until my neighbor sent me a picture of Sophie holding one of the little black kitties. Melted my heart.

So we let her buy it for free.

Kali and Conner were kind of bugged. They wanted a dog. But now Rosie is very well loved and adored. Kali has her sleep in her loft bed with her almost every night. Sophie carries her around like a baby. (and so does Jimmy) Scotty picks her up and then drops her back down.

She was the inspiration for Sophie wanting to have a kitty party this year.

When we go out of town we let her be an outside Kitty with our neighbors cats. (her mom and sister are still there) It's been great having that option. Since the weather has gotten colder, she has been not wanting to go outside though.

I had a kitty, Paws, when I was younger and I loved how she would burrow down in my covers at night and sleep by my feet. I would try and dress her up in doll clothes and feed her bottles. (that didn't work too well) She got hurt one night and her tail was broke when she came home so we had it amputated. She had just a short stub left- she looked like a bob cat. So I guess that's part of the reason I had a soft spot in my heart when Sophie wanted this kitty so much.

We're all glad she's part of our family now!

R is for Riding and Playing in our boat

We got a boat this year! Jimmy found a used one in California that he liked. It is an inboard boat and so this year we learned how to surf. Jimmy and Conner got good enough to drop the rope. I was able to get up and hold on but that’s it. Kali learned to wake board this summer but knee boarding is still her favorite. Conner learned to jump the wake and get some good air while wake boarding.

Kali had her 11th birthday party on the boat. We swapped the girls around tubing. It was a huge hit! We borrowed LuAnn's tube which can hold 4 girls at a time.

Scotty loves to go boating. Whenever he says prayers, he prays to go boating. Several times him and Sophie got on the 4 person tube (with the older kids) and loved it. Whenever we wanted them to get off Jimmy would go a little faster and then they would say they were finished. The bigger kids always wanted to go faster! Especially our niece, Emma, she is a wild woman when it comes to tubing!

We’ve made fun family memories boating!

Y is for Year Flew By

We had our oldest niece, Jocelyn, get married this August in the Portland OR temple. (Jimmy’s oldest sister, Julie’s, daughter) I can’t believe how time has flown since I first met her. She was only 9. It was a wonderful wedding and a great weekend seeing the family!

Jimmy’s parents sold their house in Oregon and bought a home in St. George. Jimmy went to Oregon with his siblings to help them pack and then also went to their new home with Conner to help unpack. We went there to visit once during the hot summer. What I am really looking forward to is visiting during our long, cold winter.

Each year for the last 7 years or so, I have made a family calendar for my parents and grandparents. It is fun to look back over the year and see what we've done and how the kids have changed. It's always crazy to me when I write in the birthday's. Like my niece, Carly, will be turning 8 this August. Kali will be 12 and Conner turning 14! It seems so far away and then before I know it, that month is here. Here are the pages I designed for the calendar. I thought it summed up the year pretty well. My parents and grandparents love getting it each year. Here are the pages below- not it order.

I also have made one for Jimmy's parents and grandma the last couple years. Here is a link to theirs. <share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8Aas2TZw5btGNC> They opened it last night at our Christmas party at Jon and Luci's and they loved it.

C is for Cruise with Atkin Family

For Christmas last year, Jimmy’s parents gift to us all was a Mexican Riviera cruise, kids and all, for their 50^th Wedding Anniversary. (we decided to leave Scotty though since he couldn’t go to the kids club yet. Our friends, Deb and Stu, from California watched him)

The kids had a blast hanging out with their cousins and hitting some of the cruise sponsored kids activities. We had a private dining area with 5 tables where we would meet every night. We went to the beach, zip lining (14 total- it was so fun! I went upside down with the guide on one), paragliding (Conner went with Jaiden), and on a boat ride.

We had a private party one day in one of the lounges. It was a surprise party for Mom & Papa. We had punch, cake, did karaoke, and Jocelyn made them a movie we watched with pictures and music. Our brother-in-law, Jay designed some t-shirts for all of us and we wore them for the surprise party. We even pulled off the surprise, they loved it!

Kali loved doing karaoke during the day with her cousins. Sophie got up once too and sang, Mary Had a Little Lamb. The kids also loved swimming, mini golfing, basketball, and getting ice cream cones whenever they wanted. We got all dressed up a couple times for formal nights. WE got a big family picture taken that Jimmy's parents bought for each of us to keep. (our is hanging in our front entry) One night we skipped the sit down dinner and went to the buffet and played cards. We saw the family friendly comedian a couple times also. There were lots of Utah families there because it was our Spring Break. Conner found a friend, Kamryn, that he kept in touch with after. (more when we first came home than now)

Sophie enjoyed Club Carnival. They face painted her face a few times and did art projects. She took a nap every day late with me in the cabin and then she’d get to stay up late with us.

That was a once in a lifetime experience being there with everyone in the family minus our two missionaries. The kids keep asking us when we can do another cruise with their cousins.

H is for Having Fun at Bear Lake

We have become friends with Conner's teacher from last year, LuAnn Albaugh. And this year she is Kali's teacher. She comes to the kid's games, we've been to her house for dinner and BBQ's after boating and she's been to our house as well.

She has a friend who owns a cabin in Bear Lake. She arranged for us all to go stay there for a few days this summer. She has a boat and we took ours and another family, the Wallins, came with us. Their son, Janson, plays on Conner's soccer team as well and they were in LuAnn's class together.

We had a great time boating. We tubed, wake boarded, water skied, and surfed. I learned how to wake surf but I can't let go of the rope yet. The water was really high so there wasn't much beach area. We found a place one of the days that we let the kids play at for a few hours. Scotty and Sophie had a great time digging and wading in the water. Because the water was so high this year, it wasn't as aqua as other years.

I also had time to read a book, The Help. It was nice to be able to relax and not worry about laundry, cleaning or soccer carpool. One night LuAnn got our a bunch of glow sticks out and the kids had a a great time playing with those. They made jump ropes out of them and that looked really cool while they swung around.

Jan Wallin's dad had passed away earlier in the year and so her mom, Deanna, joined us for our trip. It was nice to have her along.

I don't have any pics from our trip but Jan took a ton so I'll need to get some!

R is for Remembering Blake

This year had been a year of healing since my nephew passed away. On Sat. evening we met at his grave with family and 19 candles to remember what would have been his 19th birthday. We shared memories of him and acts of service that we did in honor of him for his birthday present.

Ryan found a lady at DI that was doing Christmas shopping with her kids and paid for their cart of things. I put some things on KSL for free and a lady came and got it for her nephew. Gina's dad helped out an older man and woman by giving them a part they needed and fixed their microwave. Ken is going to go to the temple and do work there for his service. Jimmy gave an extra tip for someone to buy a present for their child.

We lit the candles and sang happy birthday.

We also gathered 19 pair of gloves to give to a homeless shelter and Ken and Gina wrote up a tag that I put a picture with to attach to the gloves. Mom & Dad donated the puffy vest that was supposed to be Blake's Christmas present and then we also gave some cash also. We went to the shelter on Sunday and delivered what we had. It smelled like smoke and was a little scary. We were greeted by a nice homeless man as we entered and then another came out and started telling the kids to stay in school and do well. He said for most them that was their downfall to where they are today.

Gina read a letter she had written to one of the donor families that have been staying in contact with them. Their son received part of Blake's femur bone. I know it's been nice for them to hear how Blake's gift has changed their son's life. Some other people have also written to them. Two people are able to see now and I can't remember what the other one was.

Another thing my family did this year is run in a 5k for a Donation organization. We were out of town for Jocelyn's wedding so we missed it. They wrote Team Blake on their shirts and had a poster. I hope we do it again every year.

We also got together on the one year mark of when Blake passed away and I wrote a whole post about just that day. You can read that here

http://jimmyandang.blogspot.com/2011/11/year.html