Happy Thanksgiving 2016

Thanksgiving was spent in St. George this year.  We celebrated with the Morwood clan.

Before everyone came over, Taylor and Emily had fun helping Grandma make pies. 

They made chocolate, Oreo, banana, lemon meringue, coconut, cherry cheesecake, and pistachio.  The best part was of course licking the beaters afterward.

At 6:00 everyone came over for our Thanksgiving feast.  It was so nice to see everyone together again.

We were all there except for Terral's family.  They were in Lehi with the Bassett's.  We all had a good time eating and visiting and laughing together.  Charlotte wasn't so sure about all these people but she soon warmed up to everyone.  She even started laughing out loud when Grandpa Morwood started making his funny noises at her.  It was so cute!

After eating and cleaning up, Grandma Morwood gave each of the grandkids a Christmas pillowcase to use throughout the next month before Christmas.

The kids got to pick out their own.  They ended up picking ones that were similar in fabric.

All of the kids loved their pillowcases.  

That night Tami, Lacie, Clint, Haley and I headed out Black Friday shopping.  Even though the stores opened and sales began hours before, we were still able to get everything we wanted.  It was pretty fun facing all of the crowds together and trying to stuff all of our purchases in the back of Clint's Four-Runner.  We made it all fit though.

Friday night we went visiting the Farnsworth's.  The kids were so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa Farnsworth too. 

We couldn't leave St. George without visiting Great-Grandma Morwood too.

We love visiting Grandma and she was so excited to see us as well.  She was also so happy to finally meet Charlotte.  When I told her that Charlotte was named after her, she said she couldn't wait to meet her.  So finally after almost 3 months the two got to meet each other.  So here is Charlotte Ellen with her namesake Barbara Ellen.  That night we also had a good time helping our Aunt Janet and our cousins decorate Grandma's house for Christmas.  The kids were mostly excited about playing with their cousins Brielle, Ryder and Kelton.  We have missed everyone.

While we were down, Lacie had me take her family pictures for her Christmas cards this year.  I think they turned our pretty good for an amateur.  Here are some of my favorites.

Their favorite fun ones were the ones of all of them in Pine View clothes except for Klint who is in Dixie attire.  They always tease him for being a Dixie Flyer while all of the rest of them will be Pine View Panthers.  Go Panthers!  These pictures were fun to take.  Maybe I should really take a photography class to learn more about using my camera and taking better pictures.  

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Turkey Trot

After participating in the Smithfield Turkey Trot last Thanksgiving, we knew we wanted to make it a tradition every year.  So this year we ran in the Turkey Trot again.  We had so much fun running as a family in this fun race.

Emily and Colby are in the Running Club at their school so they have been preparing for this race for a few weeks.  Above are some of the kids and teachers in their Running Club that ran the race with them. Because they are in the Running Club, the school paid for the kids entrance into the race.  Russell and I thought that was pretty nice of them.  The kids and I ran the one mile race while Russell ran the 5k.

Emily did really well in her race finishing in 11:23 minutes as 7th in her age group and 27th overall.  She said she loved everything about the Turkey Trot especially the running.  She has really enjoyed being on the running team with her friends.

I ran with the boys while pushing Charlotte in the stroller.  This was a scary race for Colby.  He was running faster than Logan so I told him to go on ahead thinking he would stay with and follow the group.  By the time we got to the turn around spot Emily had passed us going back but we never saw Colby.  I started to get a little nervous so, thinking Logan and I had missed him in the crowd somewhere, we turned around and started heading back to the finish line to try and catch him.  As we turned one of the corners on the course. I heard crying and "Mom!"  I looked back and there was Colby behind us crying and running as fast as he could.  Apparently, he had missed the turn around spot and had continued running along the 5K course.  Luckily someone stopped him and told him to turn around.  He came running back crying and thinking he was lost.  He must have been running pretty fast because he caught up to Logan and me.  Feeling so relieved that we found him, I grabbed him in a hug and told him how glad I was to find him.  We ran the rest of the way together.  Colby was so scared that he wouldn't even let go of the stroller as we ran.  I felt like such a bad mom for having him go on alone at the start of the race.  We finally made it to the end and ran fast to the finish line.  Colby said that her favorite part of the race was when he found me.  

Russell ran the 5k with some of his friends from work.

Russell said the course was pretty rough with most of it being uphill.  Despite that, Russell did really well and crossed the finish line before his friends.  He was really happy because his ankle has been bugging him lately and it actually felt pretty good during the race.

We all did really well in this race and the boys and I even got ribbons.  Colby placed second in his age group even with his little detour.  Logan and I placed third in the stroller division.  We were kind of sad that we didn't win anything from the raffle or a turkey this year but it was okay.  After the race, we took a drive to the Fat Boy factory to get a celebratory ice cream cone.  We love that place.  What a fun day and a fun tradition. 

First Snow of the Season

Winter has officially arrived and no I am not ready for this!

The kids sure are though.  They have been checking the weather report on my phone for days just hoping and wishing for snow.  Well the snow finally came and wouldn't you know it, it came on a day that Russell worked so lucky me, I got to shovel the driveway.  The first thing the kids did when they saw the snow was grab their snow boots and winter coats and beg to go outside.  Well it was a school day so I told them they could play in it after school.  They were so bummed.

After school, I was a nice mom and let them play in the first snow of the season before doing their homework.

They had a blast making snow angels and throwing snowballs at each other.  As you can see most of the snow had melted during the day but they were happy to get to play in whatever little snow there was.

Even Charlotte got to go out in the snow for the first time.  She was bundled up really tightly in my coat and probably asleep but she was there.  These kids love snow; I don't know what their problem is...

Well this winter so far has been really weird in that the snow does not last very long.  That is okay with me but it is kind of hard to go sledding when the snow keeps melting.  So the first snow melted but then about a week later we got hit with some more snow and this time there was a little more.

This time I made the kids help me shovel the snow.  They gladly grabbed their shovels and went to work making a game out of it.  I think Colby shoveled the whole sidewalk along our property by himself.  With the sidewalk and driveway snow, they made a big snow hill to lay on.  

This second snow didn't last very long either but hey we still have a long winter ahead of us.  Happy Snow Day!

School Awards

I am constantly amazed at what these kids can accomplish!  Over the last month or so Colby and Emily have been given some pretty awesome awards at school.

First of all for doing outstanding work in their classroom and on their homework and second for their participation in the Reflections contest.  

Each month the school has a Super Spirit assembly where kids are recognized for their outstanding work.  The last couple months Emily and Colby have both been recognized.

Because they received an award, they got to run in the Canyon Colt Stampede.  This is where kids who have received a recognition award, Spirit award, Principal's 300 Club award, or made an RC jump (reading points award) get to run through the halls of the school.  For some reason, this stampede is a huge motivator for the kids.  They love running in the halls.  So far this year both Colby and Emily have been able to run every time!

Next is the Reflections awards: 

Both kids wanted to do a Reflections project this year.  The theme was "What's Your Story."  Colby drew a picture of a rocket and included the caption "Someday I want to ride in a rocket and see the Earth from the sky."  He received a participation award from the school and a medal and a bag of goodies.  He was pretty happy about that.  Emily submitted a music composition entry.  She entered her piano song she wrote in her Let Play Music class.  It was entitled "Me and Kit" and her story was about how she loved to play with her doll Kit and if you listen closely to her song, you will hear her and Kit playing.  Emily's piece was able to go to the District Reflections competition where she was awarded an Honorable Mention at District.  We were pretty impressed and happy for Emily.  She also received a participation award, a medal, and a goodies bag from the school.  Each of the kids entries will be saved and displayed at the school's leadership night and Arts Fair in February. 

Colby has also been working on some fun projects in Kindergarten.  He painted this pumpkin in class I think it turned out pretty good.  I like the happy face.  Then for November, we disguised this turkey as Captain America.  Colby came up with the design all on his own and I just helped him cut it out.  I think it turned out to be the best turkey in his class. (I may be a little biased...)  He was pretty proud of his turkey.

On Veteran's Day, the PTA put on a Patriotic Night and Emily sang a few patriotic songs with the choir that night.  This program is always a really nice way to honor all of the veterans as well as the first responders and police officers in the community.  

These kids are doing really well in school and they love going each day.  I am so proud of all of my kiddos!

2 Months and Leaves

Time flies when you are having fun and can you believe it Charlotte is two months old!  

She is getting so big!  At her two month doctor appointment (where sadly she had to get her first set of vaccinations...) she weighed 12 lbs and was 23 inches.  She is about 70-75%ile in both weight and height but her head measurement is in the 90ish %ile!  So she has a big head.  The better to hold that big smart brain, right?!  She just keeps growing...  We love having Charlotte in our family and she is always so happy.  The kids love her so much.

On her two month birthday all of the leaves fell off the trees and the kids waited all day to play in them.  In the morning while they were at school Russell raked all of the leaves into a pile.  Then after school the kids had a blast jumping and playing in the leaves.

They jumped and threw leaves at each other and even made snow or "leaf" angels in the leaves.  They even buried Russell in the leaves so that he could jump out and scare them.  Colby's friend Chase Hooton came over and played with us too.

Who would have thought kids could have so much fun with something as simple as dead leaves!  They had a blast burying themselves and then jumping out at each other.  Charlotte, on the other hand, was not as excited about the leaves.  We put her in the leaves to take her picture and she was not so sure about it.  Then I think some of the leaves poked her in the face and she freaked out!  She started screaming.  So in order to get the leaf pictures, we buried Russell in the leaves and he held her that way.  She was a little better that way because she wasn't in the leaves.

Charlotte is getting so big. We recently discovered that she likes to play with her baby gym.  She especially likes eating the Elephant legs because they are just the perfect height for her mouth to reach.  She will play and kick for a few minutes before getting bored.  She is smiling more often and becoming more alert and attentive.  It is fun to see her personality developing.  She is also still sleeping through the night, thankfully.  We love this little girl and are so glad she is part of our family.