Birthday Bowling Bash!

Someone had a birthday shout Hooray!! Caleb turned 4! To celebrate his birthday we had a bowling birthday party with the Lewis family!

Here is the birthday boy!!

Almost twins! There is no doubt they are brothers!

Ty was sure a big helper! He is a great big brother and cousin! He helped all the kids get their ball ready for bowling!

 Aunt Chelsie with the boys and their sassy sister!

 Ty playing hide-and-seek with his cousins!

 Mara i quite a good little bowler, she is sweet and nice too!

 Here goe the birthday bowler!!

 Next is pizza party! Caleb loves pizza!  

Caleb asked for a chocolate cake...so I made a delicious chocolate cake and decorated it with bowling pins and a bowling ball.

Do you recognize him? Carder wanted to play dress-up too!

Life with the Lewies!!

 The Lewies you might ask? Well, Uncle Blake and Aunt Maren have nick-names for all the siblings...ours is the plural of Lewis--The Lewies! They crack me up! I learned about this name on our trip to California! Anyway, ever since we got back from California life has been BUSY! With what?! Everything! Ty is playing basketball, scouts, swim team, piano lessons, homework, multiplication tests. Mara is now doing tumbling, and swim lessons. Caleb too is doing swimming and preschool. And Carder is the greatest baby to just go with the flow as we race around Price to get where we need to be!
As for me...I've been participating in a sewing class at the church once a week. I am working on a queen size quilt! It's coming along but I can barely fine time to sew it! I have been reading a lot lately, or at least trying to read the books for book club. I am hosting book club this month so I want to be prepared and ready! I also try to find time to practice the organ, make freezer meals for my meal group, and try to keep a somewhat clean house!! Life is crazy! But I love it!

Nate's big news is he survived the Klondike! Now that is crazy! Sleeping in the cold with the boy scouts! Way to go Nate! He does so much for his scouts. Some day I hope they realize what a great leader they had!

A few cute random pictures that might just make you laugh!

Mara was recognized at school for Character Counts program for Appreciation! Way to go Mara! 

 This cute cowboy makes my day! I just love him! He dresses up on a daily basis!

Here is the full outfit boots and all! 

Ok this was one of those moments when you want to cry but end up laughing instead! We were just sitting down for our meal and I had made a smoothie. One of the kids wanted to poor their own cup and totally missed the cup and it went all over the table. Nate (being the smart daddy that he is) jumped up and grabbed the straws and they started drinking the smoothie off the table!

 Caleb jumped in for some of the fun! I did not even get mad in this situation! All I could do was laugh to see them slurping their smoothie from the table!

 And this little guy?! He's not too little! He is getting bigger and bigger every minute!

 Carder has officially learned how to roll over both ways (front to back and back to front!!) He is a moving little buddy! He can even scoot around on his tummy!

 I love story time! It's great to have such good readers! Mara loves being able to read the bed time story!

I don't know where he comes from sometimes! But cute Caleb always keeps me laughing!!

Calico Ghost Town

On our drive home from California we stopped along the way at a little place called Calico Ghost town. It was a fun place to explore, very commercialized however!

This place was an old mining town in the middle of no where!

 We liked seeing all the shops and stores, imagining how life would have been back then.

 Carder sporting his "Utah-Suit" as Aunt Maren calls it!!

Cute kids and best buddies!!

 

 We took a ride on the train that went around the town.

 

 The train ride was only a short ride but told a story about the town along the way.

 

Ty loves riding trains!

Side by side I can see a little resemblance!!

 It's true...we know where Caleb's good looks come from!!

Mara loved climbing to the top of the mountain! 

 

This was actually a home back in the days!

Ty and Mara on top of a mountain!

The foundation and remains of an old house.

The rest of the way was just driving. We stopped in Vegas for the night and stayed at the Excalibur. The next day was the longest drive of my life! Carder did not want to be in his car seat or the car any more! Every stop we made got colder and colder! Oh how we miss California warm weather! 

Cute Little Carder!!

While we were in California Aunt Ashley (Maren's friend/sister) took a few cute pictures of Baby Carder! Everyday I give thanks to my Heavenly Father that he sent this sweet baby boy to our family! He is such a joy! He is a happy and content little guy!

You can't see it in the picture, but while in California we discovered his first tooth!

 

I think this is my favorite picture! He is sure a handsome little boy!

 Same picture black and white!

 I love this picture with his cute hands folded!

I just love this baby! He is growing way too fast! I am grateful for the happiness and joy he brings our family.

New Year's Eve Party

New Year's Eve 2012...the last night of the year. We celebrated at Blake and Maren's playing Minute To Win It. We divided into teams: Nate's Ninja's and Ty's Raptors! Which team will win? We had all sorts of activities, from stacking apples, to jabbing potatoes with straws and trying to balance M&Ms on them. Shooting elastics at targets. I thought I took more pictures, and I know someone has videos of the night, but for now these pictures is all that I have of our fun night.

Caleb doing the "elephant march". Yes, he does have pantyhose tied to his head with a tennis ball in them!! He had one minute to knock over ten solo cups!! Can he do it? Yes! Actually he did! It was so funny watching him swing around his 'trunk' trying to knock the cups down.

 

Now it's Mara's turn! She too had to be an elephant and try knocking over the cups.

Why is Mara wrapped up in toilet paper?! It was for the mummy spin--in one minute she had to unravel a roll of toilet paper by spinning around. Its harder than it sounds!!

I can't remember the name of this one, but Mara has a yo-yo tied to her pants and has to try and knock down the solo cups with the yo-yo! We laughed so hard watching her swing her hips and dance around with a yo-yo tied to her pants!!

This was Caleb just being silly! That's what this night was all about---having fun together as a family!! Talk about happiness!! THIS WAS HAPPINESS!! Laughing like fools! Playing to the death..okay not really the death but we were quite the competitive bunch! Even Caleb tried his hardest to be the winning team! What a F.U.N New Year's Eve party!! It sure makes me miss being in California with my family. We had quite the party all week long. How can it only have been a month ago?! It seems like last year!!

Rose Bowl Parade

New Years Eve was celebrated in Pasadena California! Nate has always wanted to see the Rose Bowl Parade. We looked into going but in order to get good seats you have to camp-out the night before or get up at 4am! We decided to go to the float party instead, which was so awesome! We were glad we went!

I know Nate really wants to go to the Rose Bowl someday! This may be as close as he gets! 

 Mara pushing Brook, who refused to stay in her stroller! She was as determined as my children! 

This was one of the floats we saw. It was amazing to be so close and see how the floats were made. Everything on the float has to be grown! They 100% natural! Flowers, fruit, vegetables, seeds....even seaweed!

Some floats we saw from a distance, others we saw up close.

Mara is just as pretty as the flowers on the float!

We could not believe the amount of flowers here!! Every kind and color! Each single flower was put in its own vile with water. Then carefully placed in the exact right spot!

We each were given a rose on the way in, we had a dozen roses at the end of the day! We gave them to Aunt Maren because she wasn't able to come with us because she had to work. 

The best part of it all was actually the next day when we watched the parade on TV and saw all the floats we had seen! There were several more floats in the parade that we didn't see at parade preview.