Pine Wood Derby Champs!

The Hotwheels car that Christian tried to imitate.

Christian's Car is the black one in the #1 spot. Aaron's car is the red and tan one is the #2 spot.





Our Ward did a Pine Wood Derby competition yesterday for the Scouts and also did a chili cook-off competition along with it. We had a really hard time deciding what to do because Christian had a basketball game at the same time as the Pinewood Derby. He had spent a lot of time on his car this year with Aaron helping him. He knew that it was going to be his last competition with the cub scouts. But he also wanted to not let down his basketball team by not being there. So he went and did the weigh-in of his car and then went to the basketball game. He let Meliah race his car for him. Well, we got back to the Stake Center and Aaron said he had gotten 1st place. I asked him how he came up with the shape and style of car he designed and he said that he had raced all of his hotwheels and the fastest one was the one he copied. I thought that was very cute and scientific. He was sad to have missed the races but the fact that he won made up for it all. Aaron also won with his car in the stock car races (separately judged from the scouts). Thank you Tyler and Amanda for taking some pictures for me at the derby!

My new adventure!

This week I have started watching 3 additional children every weekday from 8:30 am to 3 pm. The kids are ages 3, 2 and 1! My home has not been child proof for quite awhile. Elizabeth was never a climber. She has really been a pretty calm child and so I have been completely out of touch with babies and toddlers and how busy they can be. It has been an adventure because I am learning new things about myself and how important it is for me to rely on prayer. I am learning that the things that seem impossible are quite possible with the help of Heavenly Father. Things have come to my mind that are not my thoughts. Light and knowledge on how to deal with certain behavior problems have been an inspiration and have seemed to work so well. I am humbled to know that I couldn't do this without my Heavenly Father. I am simply amazed by the blessings of strength, knowledge and patience that I have been given this week.

Today, I went to do an Art lesson for my son's 5th grade class, I felt like it was so easy to do, when in the past it was a challenge. I loved it and was so grateful for the opposition and difficulties that I have experienced this week that made me realize how pleasant it really is to teach 5th graders! Opposition sure does help me. The harder things are, the stronger I will be in the end. Happiness comes with the simplest little blessings!!!

Vacation fun!

The kids and their cousins played with the nerf guns for hours! They loved it and loved being together.

Do all kids just love trying to get pictures of things in the air flying? They thought this picture was pretty cool!

New Years Eve the kids got to go ice skating with some of their cousins. They enjoyed it alot more than we thought they would. They even got a lesson on how to skate from one of the instructors there. It was a great alternative to going to the snow. They really got good fast and spent the entire time skating (over 2 hours).

Christian, Meliah and Lizzy, skating together! I love my kids, they are such a blast!

Lizzy started off by skating with Aaron holding her hand. Once she got her skating lesson, she went off on her own and did amazingly well. The kids all had a super great day!

After skating we went to Aunt Terri's house and spent New Years Eve with a ton of cousins. I can't even remember how many kids were there. We played murder, heads up seven up, night at the museum and simon says until midnight. We also made hats, ate ham and celebrated Marin's birthday.