Tori is 12

This girl has been spunky since I was pregnant with her! She is caring, nice, fun, energetic and a blast to be around. She is also bossy and moody and can get irritated very easily by her brothers! I love this girl more than words could ever express! She makes the world a happier place and makes our family so much more fun.

We went to get her make up done at MAC. The make up artist was so cute and did such a great job doing the perfect make up for a 12 year old. Tori absolutely LOVED it!

12 things about Tori right now:

1. She loves to dance.

2. She loves to read.

3. She is very excited to tryout for cheer again. She was a great cheerleader this year and got to be a flyer and was the best tumbler on the team.

4. She loves to go in at night when I think she is in bed and talk to Baylee.

5. She has her dad wrapped around her little finger. She can get anyone to do pretty much anything for her for that matter though!

6. She is SUPER excited to start Young Womens. I think it's cuz she has such awesome leaders :)

7. School has always been really easy for her, so this year has been a huge adjustment. She is finally figuring out Middle School though.

8. Her favorite color is orange. She loves everything orange; food, clothes, even lip gloss!

9. She loves that she gets to wear make up now. And she is pretty dang good at it already.

10. She is pretty adventurous in eating. She will try most things and she eats more than any of our other kids.

11. She loves post it notes and highlighters.

12. She is still a total performer and will perform in front of anybody. She loves an audience!

Spring Break 2012

I was so sad this year that we couldn't go to Mexico with Mark and LaNae. But my sweet friend Nan asked me if we wanted to go stay in their families condo in St. George with them. So we loaded up all the kids on Wednesday and went. We had so much fun! We went without any plans other than hanging out. We played lots of games, took the kids swimming at the public pool in St. George, went to the park, and just let the kids play. Our kids have grown up together so they are best friends. When Kason, Nan's oldest son who is now 15, and Baylee were little they played "spies" in our neighborhood. Sadly, they didn't want to play spies over spring break lol. But the kids got along great, and were so excited to get to have "sleepovers" with their friends.

Cole having a breakfast cotton candy at Golden Corral. Not sure when cotton candy became a breakfast food!

We walked to the house that Scott had grown up in. Whoever lives there now put up this locks of love gate. I guess it's a European thing, but this is the only one in the US.

Friday night after work Scott and Travis drove up. Dads make everything more fun :) On saturday we drove out to Sand Hollow to have a picnic and play in the sand. The weather was beautiful!

We had to have an Easter Egg race of course!

Scott gets competitive no matter what we are doing!

Those were some pretty great tracks. Tori was the big winner this year though.

Easter 2012

Easter morning we woke up bright and early and headed to the church for the sunrise Easter service. It was so beautiful and a great way to start of Easter Morning. But pretty cold! Next year we are wearing Uggs.

When we got home from the Sunrise service, the Easter Bunny had been to our house. The kids found their Easter baskets and a few eggs the Bunny had left around the house.

After church we went to Grandpa Delmer and Grandma Connie's house for an Easter Egg hunt. It is the kids favorite part of Easter. Mark and LaNae's family was back from Cancun so they were there also. Grandma Connie must have an "in" with that Bunny, cuz he always leaves a TON of eggs at her house!

General Conference

We were lucky enough to get tickets to General Conference for the saturday afternoon session. Before our session we went into the new Deseret Book across from temple square and one of our heroes was there signing autographs. We just love John Bytheway!

Of course we forgot to get a picture of us at temple square so we took one at the new mall across the street as we were walking back to our hotel.

We only had 4 tickets for that actual session, so we solved the question of who was going to go and who was going to wait in the standby line with the usual method around here... paper/rock/scissors. Travis won, so he and the 3 older kids went to the conference center to watch conference live. Cole and I went to the standby line on temple square. While I was waiting in line, he checked out some of the beautiful statues there. I absolutely love this picture of him. I can only imagine what he is thinking, hopefully he was remembering the story behind the statue! We didn't get into the conference center, but we sat in the tabernacle to watch the broadcast. Cole was a complete angel. I honestly only planned on staying in there maybe an hour or so and when he got so restless he couldn't sit anymore I thought we would leave and go walk around temple square. But he sat the entire time! He fell asleep for the last little bit, but he was better than he has ever been at church in the last 7 years! He is very excited to get to go to the actual place now. The older kids and Travis had a great experience. They took notes, and Kade even drew out Lehi's dream about the tree of life which one of the speakers talked about.

On our way back to our hotel we walked past Melting Pot and the kids were dying to go there. Once again we pulled out the paper/rock/scissors to decide lol. Tori won, so we treated ourselves with Melting Pot Cheese fondue and Chocolate. It was super yummy! We had such a great weekend and can't wait to get the opportunity to go again.

City

Kade had a project in school called "City". The kids have to come up with a business concept, get it approved by the mayor (his teacher) and the city council (his parents), pay for a business license, then they have a day to sale their products or services. Kade's business was called Wrist Wrappers and we made bracelets. Usually when one of the kids has a project it turns into a family project, but this one did more so that any! Travis, Tori, and Kade made survival bracelets. Baylee and I made bead bracelets. And Cole organized the board. The kids use money they earn from doing different things in class to buy stuff, it's not really money. Then after, they have to add up how much they made and pay taxes on their income. The first time we did this I think Kade made about $150. It was a fun project and I think he learned a lot from it. We are so blessed he has such an amazing teacher this year!

Cole turned 7

My baby somehow isn't a baby anymore! March 16th was his birthday, and instead of going to school he wanted to spend the day with his BFF, me :) He chose to go to Five Guys for lunch, and he spent his Christmas money from Grandpa Robin and Grandma Janet on a basketball hoop we found on craigslist. I love this little boy more than words can ever express. He is crazy, sometimes lazy, fun, handsome, stubborn, sweet, and loving. He completes our family in so many ways and I can't imagine life without him!

Seven things about Cole:

1. He is really excited to play baseball this spring.

2. He can FINALLY read!

3. He loves his mom

4. He loves to ride his bike and scooter

5. He idolizes his big brother and sisters

6. His dad is his hero

7. He LOVES monster trucks and Monster Jam is the best thing in his whole world

First 5K

Baylee and Kade "ran" their first 5K in the Defending Freedom run on February 25th. My good friend Jacoy organized the run/walk/bike event because her husband Ben is in Afghanistan. He ran there with a bunch of other soldiers and she held one here on the same day. Baylee and Kade were the only ones that could do it that day because Cole had a wrestling tournament Travis took him to and Tori had a cheerleading clinic that I took her to. Baylee figured out that she could actually can run though and had a great time that morning with her friend Brandon. They spent a lot of time waiting for Kade. :)

Kinda skipped Valentines

Valentines Day is one of my least favorite holidays. I think it's kinda lame to have a certain day to tell the people you love, that you love them. But we do have a few traditions around here that the kids didn't let me forget. We always have red pancakes and red chocolate milk. And we use the cute heart plates I got on clearance at Target a few years ago. :) Hopefully my family knows by my words and deeds everyday that I love them, not just Valentines Day.