Reading University Winner!

Last week, Adam's teacher let us know that he would be receiving the Reading University Award for their class this month. Daddy was able to go into work late and we were all able to go watch him get his award. It was a surprise, so he was so happy when they called his name!

 Mrs. Burnside said that Adam is an amazing reader and she know because of how good he reads, he will do amazing things with his life. Mr. O'Brian added that he recently helped out in Adam's reading class and loved to hear Adam read. He said Adam reads with such emotion, it's like listening to a book on tape-that Adam just draws you into the story and you don't want him to stop reading. Adam was thrilled to hear that!

 We are so proud of our Super Reader!! He is an exceptional boy!!

Valentine's Day 2016

For the last 2 weeks, we have been getting ready for Valentine's Day, or "Love Day" as Gwennie calls it. We have had fun doing some countdown activities to get ready for the big day. I miss having all my kids home all day long. We used to have time to do lots of fun activities leading up to a holiday. Now, we just get them in when we can. It still works, but I miss the good old days. 

Adam, Tessa, and Gwen loved waking up every morning and finding some special mail in their mailboxes. Their doors are full of love notes from their Mommy and Daddy. 

We made a kiss countdown. Nothing says love like chocolate!

 We had fun making these colorful hearts to decorate our doors and windows. They were all so colorfully creative!

 Aunt Dee visited us one afternoon and brought with her all the fixings for Valentine's Day houses. The kids had a silly afternoon and they consumed a ridiculous amount of candy. They were in heaven though!

 Their silly masterpieces. Adam built a campsite, Tessa had dinosaurs and snakes everywhere, and Gwen was adamant that she made a baby house. 

 Tessa and Gwen made beautiful beaded hearts to hang in our window. 

 We heard that our Reno cousins were coming to visit us and the kids spent a whole afternoon making special Valentine robots to give them. 

 Of course, we made delicious treats during the week. 

 Adam and Tessa had fun preparing Valentine's for their classmates. 

Mommy got up extra early on Valentine's Day (which was Sunday) and prepared our favorite heart cinnamon rolls for a special breakfast before church. 

 They were excited to wake up and find some special Valentine mail waiting for them from Ma and Pa!

 We had a lovely day at church. Caleb is doing so much better in nursery. We took some quick pictures with all of our Valentine's before everyone changed. 

 Showing off their cards from Ma and Pa. 

We had a few activities that we didn't get to during the week, so we saved them for Sunday.  

 We did a science experiment with different liquids and candy hearts.

 We played Heart Lava. Caleb loved dancing with his siblings. 

 Tessa doing "the worm".

 Happy playing. I love it!

 We did a candy heart relay race. 

 After one trip, Gwen decided to be efficient and took her whole bowl with her and dumped it into the other bowl. 

 We all had a good laugh over that one. 

We had a nice dinner together and we watched our wedding video and had dessert before bedtime. The kids couldn't believe how little all their Uncles looked. They also had to comment on how much Mommy and Daddy kept kissing, and they were pretty sure Mommy and Daddy were playing Pooh Sticks when we had our pictures taken on a bridge. Cause I guess that's the only reason to go to a bridge. Their reactions were pretty cute. I am thankful that our marriage and family is so full of love. Every day is Valentine's Day at our house!

Welcome to Moxtek

We have had some big family changes recently. At the beginning of the new year, Eric was offered and accepted a new job at a company in Orem called, Moxtek. We were thankful for answered prayers on many different levels. This new opportunity will bless Eric career wise, and having his commute cut down to 15 minutes, has blessed our home life. He has been busy the last couple of weeks learning his new responsibilities and more about the company. He is a Senior Manager now, but honestly, that's about all I can tell you about his job. We still aren't totally sure what this company manufactures. Something with crazy lenses on a microscopic level. Eric will be working a lot with vendors and because of that will get to do some traveling with this new job. He gets to go to San Fransisco (or as the kids call it-San Franstinktown) next week and Japan in a few weeks. 

Last week, I got this picture from Eric. The ceiling above his office collapsed and water came gushing down. Luckily, he saw it coming, so he was able to throw his phone and computer out of the way, which is right where the water all landed. Thankfully, everyone was okay, but it made for an adventurous day and a good story. Most of his co-workers just kind of chuckled and told him, "Welcome to Moxtek". 

Gwen

Last week we had Gwen's pictures taken. She loves taking pictures and going to the "picture store". She was super cute as always! We love our big 4 year old!!