Happy Birthday Scott!

Scott is 16! It seems like yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital. I remember when we got home from the hospital he was still asleep in his car seat, so we placed him under the Christmas tree for a little while while we put our things away. He was so tiny and look at him now. He's grown a ton in the last year and it's actually really nice to have another big, strong guy around the house! He's a big help to John in all of his projects, and I appreciate him, too. He (usually) has a happy attitude and he's lots of fun to be around.

I know what he's wishing for and it has 4 wheels :)

Mommer and Grandpa and Steve and Emily and their family came up for cake and ice cream, but this picture of Matt, Brad, and Zach is all I took. I guess I was too busy visiting!

Grandma and Grandpa weren't here, of course, but whenever any of us have a birthday, we get Happy Birthday sung to us in Russian over Skype.

Christmas Eve

Even though we were saddened by the situation with Kelly, we left the hospital in the afternoon to come home to have Christmas Eve with our family.

It was time to destroy/enjoy the kids' gingerbread masterpiece.

Since three of our 4 kids thought they were too old to act out the nativity scene this year we watched the "Joy to the World" DVD instead. It was a good alternative. The Christmas story is read from Luke with scenes from Christ's birth interspersed with scenes of modern families around the world reading or acting out the story.

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.

All ready for bed...

The kids always sleep together on Christmas Eve. This year it was in the basement. Matt is really serious about letting me know he's asleep!

A Different Kind of Christmas

We knew that this Christmas would be a little different than usual, because my parents are on their mission and we would miss spending time with them, but we didn't realize just how different this Christmas would be. On the evening of the 23rd, our brother-in-law, Kelly was in a severe 4-wheeler accident while on an outing with his family and he died late in the evening on Christmas Eve. He was a wonderful man, a father of 8, new grandfather of one, former bishop, hardworking doctor, and loving husband. He was soft-spoken, had a dry sense of humor, patient and very kind. He will be greatly missed. We are so grateful for the knowledge that families are eternal.

Eagle Project

Yes, it's true. Scott has completed his eagle scout project. Don't faint. He talked to a lady at the Salvation Army office in downtown Ogden who told him that their Red Bucket donations were down this year. She said they'd been able to get enough toys, but they were low on funds for food and other supplies, so Scott decided to do a food drive for his project.

These are a few of his helpers after collecting the food. It's a little hard to see, but they collected a lot of food. The whole back half of my car was stuffed with food. They also collected a little bit of money.

Here they are delivering the food to the Salvation Army. The Lieutenant in the picture is the director of the Salvation Army who signed off on Scott's project before and after he did it. He was surprised and happy with the amount of food that they collected. He said it would probably be gone in about a day and a half, though, because of the need there is in the area.

Lasagna Party

Sunday we had our annual "Lasagna Party" for my mom's side of the family. It's usually at my mom and dad's house, but since they're in Russia, we had it at our house. We had 46 (and 1/2) people here and it was a lot of fun.

Camille making a veggie tree while one of three huge lasagnas cook behind her

It wasn't the same without Mom and Dad, but they woke up at 3:15 am their time to greet everyone on Skype. Everyone had a great time talking to them, especially Aunt Pat. We missed them and look forward to having them back with us next year. Hopefully they were able to go back to sleep!

There was lots of food...

silly games, of course...

and awesome presents. All in all a great evening. Thanks for coming, everyone!

White Christmas

Finally, last Saturday and Sunday we got a real snowstorm here in Ogden. Before that it had only been a few inches here and there, but now we have over a foot of the white stuff. It looks like Christmas!

I love how clear the air is after a storm. This is a pretty sunrise a day or two after the storm. Now, several days later, it looks nothing like this. The valley is full of haze again. We need another storm!

It's pretty at dusk, too, when the air is clear, although you can see a little haze beginning over the lake.

Our Christmas lights look much better in the snow!

Come on in!

Cub Scouts

Have I mentioned lately how much Matt loves Cub Scouts? He counts the days until he gets to go, and he's always reading his scout book trying to find achievements he can pass off at home. The other day they did the coolest thing yet at scouts, though. They went to the Jr. High and the shop teacher helped them make tool boxes. Matt loves his. He carried it everywhere he went for a couple of days. Now he wants tools to put in it for Christmas. You can guess that Santa is all too happy to oblige and has had lots of fun doing so.

Wisdom Teeth

Camille had 3 wisdom teeth pulled yesterday. The 4th is supposedly on track to fill the spot of a 12th year molar that was pulled when she got braces. She was really brave, but she ended up pretty sore. She spent most of the day yesterday with ice packs on her face.

She looks a little like a chipmunk today, but she went off to school anyway, like a good little girl. She was too scared to stay home and miss calculus.

Festival of Trees

Last week I dragged my kids to the Festival of Trees. They were good sports, but they could have done with about 1/4 as many trees! We sure saw some amazing trees, though. Matt's favorite was the one covered with Webkinz, and Scott's was the one covered and surrounded with signed sports memorabilia from every sports hero with Utah ties that you can think of.

The gingerbread houses were a hit. If you look carefully behind Matt you can see the "Up" house.

This gingerbread castle was the star of the show.

In the next post: our own attempt at a gingerbread house. It's just a little less impressive.

It's Done!

It's been a big project, but the sports court is finally done! John did an awesome job and Scott helped him all along the way. The first step was placing a water barrier and metal studs.

Then they lifted the HEAVY melamine and fastened it to the studs. John had to prepare each piece with a tongue and groove edge before it was ready to place. He also had to rig up separate contraptions to even get the pieces down into the sports court (through the window) and then up to the top of the scaffolding.

The top row was definitely the hardest.

With the walls done, they could start the floor. This went a lot faster, and gave me fewer grey hairs, since everyone was safe on the ground!

Matt helped by pulling off the tape that was holding the floor in place while the glue dried. The basketball and racquetball lines were researched online and carefully marked and taped, then painted with special paint.

The last item of business was to hang a net for volleyball or badminton. There are different hooks on the wall, so the height is adjustable. Matt especially likes badminton.

Our first family doubles badminton tournament. Great job, John and Scott! This will be an awesome place for our family to have fun and for our kids and their friends to hang out. Now on to the next project! Poor John never gets to rest.