Sam's B-day!

It seems like Sam has been waiting forever to turn 5 and now it's finally happened! He had a whole list of things he wanted to do for his special day- he decided he wanted to go to IHOP for breakfast, Chuck-a- Rama for lunch and Leo's Place for dinner, he wanted to go swimming, go to the movie theater, go pick out his own gift from the toy store- I'm sure there was more but that's all I remember. We went to Leo's on is actual birthday for dinner and he had a blast. Grandma, Grandpa and Joey took him and the other kids to IHOP on Saturday morning and they sang to him and gave him an ice cream sundae. He thought it was pretty awesome that he got ice cream for breakfast! Then we had a family party with cake, ice cream, presents, dinner and fun. He had a great birthday and birthday weekend with family.

Searching for Snow

This winter has been a little unusual around here. I've loved the lack of snow this winter but the kids have definitely missed it. So we packed up and went in search of some snow to play in. We had a great time in Driggs with Papa and Nana. The kids loved sledding, going on 4 wheeler rides, building an igloo and getting to sleep up at the cabin.

V-Day Boxes

Chris had a million ideas and sketches of how he wanted to do his valetines box, but he settled for a golf hole surrounded by a sand trap. The others required far too much work- pulleys and other mechanical things. Good thing he's pretty easy going. Spencer wanted a BYU Football box and Kira made a pencil writing a valentine. I'm so proud of them. They all made them on their own with very little help from me!

Derby

This was Christian's last Pinewood Derby. We didn't get many pictures because Steve was running the race and I was chasing the kiddos. So these will have to do. Chris's car is the yellow and blue one- He named it Star Burst. The boys all got a t-shirt with a picture of their car on it as their prize. It was pretty awesome. Chris may not have any more derbys to look forward to doing but Steve has a lot years of helping make cars. Next up...Spencer.

Grandpa Joe

My Grandpa Joe recently passed away- January 11th, 2012. Unfortunately for the majority of my life I've lived in a different state than my grandparents but we visited as much as we could, less often since I've gotten married and started a family of my own but there are something I will always remember my Grandpa Joe. He would always sit in the same chair at the table with his beer, cigarettes and tv remote. I would sit next to him and play "spider bug". He would move his hand and fingers like it was a spider crawling across the table and I would try to squish his hand. I loved playing this game with my grandpa when I was little. I always thought my grandpa was a pretty quiet guy, except when he was giving my dad a hard time about politics. He would always drive my grandma around because she didn't drive. So when we would visit he would drive us to the video store, grocery store and wherever else we wanted to go but he would always wait in the car no matter how long we took. One time I remember him hitting a bump in the road and all the kids went flying up and hit our heads on the roof.


I don't remember my grandpa in very many pictures but I've seen these and one other from when he was younger. He used to tell me he was an orphan. I never knew if it was true or not. It took me years before I finally knew for sure he was teasing me. I always wondered why we called him Grandpa Joe because his name is actually Benedict Gerard Brennan. I think the story behind the name Joe came from a kid he looked up to and he decided he was going to go by the name Joe too. My dad always called him Pete, which never made sense either but I guess the story behind it is that one day my dad was goofing off and called him Pete and it just stuck.
Some of my favorite stories about my grandpa happened just before my grandma died last year. His true character came out and you could see how thoughtful and caring he was. I love this one- One day my grandma had fallen in their bedroom and couldn't get up so my grandpa climbed out of bed and laid on the floor with her until someone came home to help her. He wasn't strong enough to help her up himself but he made sure she wasn't alone. Even though he will be missed it's a happy thought to know that now they are together again.

And it starts

We have been lucky- so far this year we've only had one major school project. Chris was assigned a region and had to do a written report and visual about a Native American Tribe from that area. He had to hurry and get his research, written report and project done because it was assigned over Thanksgiving break and we were leaving for the holiday. He decided to make a model of what they lived in. He had so much fun doing that he decided to make some clay pottery to add to it. He did a great job!