It was such a great get away. We played games, visited and ate.

Erik, Stryker and Cynthia

McKyna and Austin

Erik and Jeff took the kids on a ride during a snow storm it was FREEZING cold! Look at Jeff's mask so funny! His face will be warm for sure.

It was so much fun sledding with the crooks

McKyna and McCall have been so lucky to have a sweet dad who has sent them flowers for valentines Day each year. They look forward to the note he sends with the flowers just as much.

Grandpa turned 86 years old. Stryker and Krew and I took him and grandma lunch and then visited. We love having them so close to us!

Last Monday morning after all my little ducks headed off to school I was cleaning up the disaster from the weekend and I found this sitting up against the chair. I had to run and get Stryker to show him what his big sister McKyna had left for him.Krew then said, Ya she LOVES me. I had to laugh even though the note said stryker krew knew she loved him too. That made my day.

Erik and I took Mckyna, McCall and MaClane to the open house of the Draper temple. What a beautiful temple. It was such a sweet experiences to takl abouth each room as we walked through with them. We are so lucky to have so many temples.

It was a COLD Winters Day in Utah....but thanks to Costco we had yummy fresh mango smoothies. Both boys loves eating the mango while I made our smoothies.

Great Day!
I was so excited today that I was able to drag myself out of bed early and run to the gym! When I got home Erik had fed all five of our ducks(children) and had helped the three older ones get ready for school. How wonderful was that!

After talking with my DEAR friend Kara yeasterday not once, twice but three time because I remembered more things we HAD to discuss. I found this qoute on Stephanies blog. It is from Elder Ballards talk. I truly need to be better at this. It was and IS my new years resolution!

Author Anna Quindlen reminds us not to rush past the fleeting moments.{or if I could enter here-the basket-head mother syndrome} She said: “The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. . . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less”(Loud and Clear [2004], 10–11

Nei Nei Benefit Concert.

Erik and I took the 3 older children to a Mindy Gledhill Benefit Concert last night. It was such a fun concert. It was also very tender and touching. They had a silent auction in the lobby to also help raise money for Stephanie and Christian Neilsen who were in a plane crash. Many of their Family members were at the concert, including their two girls who sang a song with Mindy.

This is one of the items my kids won was cases, cases and more cases of old fashioned soda in a bottle. When we got home they wanted to sample some of the different flavors.



MaClane is our collector. Wow! he now has something new to add to his many other collections. BOTTLE CAPS. We love this about him.

The kids all built a tent together it took up half of our basement and went on forever and ever. They each had their own rooms. Times have changed when I built a tent it was with one blanket and all seven of my siblings would just crown in and giggle.

I snuck the girls out of school and we had a little get away. We got our nails done and had lunch. I love to listen to them talk they are so amazingly chatty and have the greatest stories about school and life.

Cousins took a tub on our family getaway!