It's a New Year - and I'll never "Catch Up!"

I have decided two things: (1) I will try to blog more frequently this coming year. I love reading friends' blogs where they have just jotten down a few fun things that have happened - even if there were no pictures to be had; and (2) I will never catch up and I am not going to try. I am in the process of preparing past postings for publication and I will add such notable events as Josh's birthday, my "new" kitchen floor, and Christmas to that ...

That said, a little note about Christmas. The kids have absolutely loved their new playground - and I have absolutely loved having them spend so much time outside!

Also, the kids have really gotten into their new puzzles. Ben and Ginny totally trashed their little puzzles within 3 days, but Josh's puzzle is going strong. They sit down as a group and put it together over and over and over .... Another puzzle we got was a group of 26 alphabet mini-puzzles. The backs of each little puzzle is identical, because you are supposed to be learning your letters as you put together the picture side. Not Ginny, she goes for the advanced set-up where you put the puzzle together by only looking at the back! When I got this picture, she had two of the little puzzles already together and was just giving up on the third ... today she decided to try matching pictures instead.

Another "new" tradition we are working on is a more focused family home evening. I decided to go with the Primary theme for this year "I Know My Savior Lives." I got dog-tag chains for the younger boys that has the theme printed on it (Robert's dog-tag has the youth theme on it and Ginny's necklace is different too). Robert is enjoying his, the boys put their on as soon as they get up each morning. On Sunday, we were running late and so they didn't get to put them on before we headed out the door. When we got to the church, Joshua realized that he didn't have the chain. I told him I was sorry and that he could have it when we got home. He tearfully said, "But Mom, if I don't have the chain I won't know my Savior lives!"

Going back to the family home evening lesson. I picked up a FHE help book that came with a cd for printing out activities and challenges. There is a new challenge every week and an activity for younger kids as well as an activity for older kids. Perfect! This week the challenge is to pray more sincerely and focusing on Gratitude. The lesson (they are all really really short - just perfect for the attention spans in this house) was on being children of God. For the activity, the younger kids drew pictures of themselves (with help from Daddy) and Robert got a puzzle. Dad told him to head to the scripture the puzzle was about and copy it (or cheat) which totally backfired when they both realized that the puzzle was a paraphrase of the scripture rather than verbatim. Ha ha ha! Both Byron and I were tired going into the activity, so it was only by sheer determination to try at least once that I even got the crayons out of the closet. I am so glad I did. By the time we were finished drawing (the younger kids are never actually finished drawing, by the way), everyone was having a good time. As an impulse (and to check the tantrums caused by putting the crayons away), I taped each picture at the head of each child's bed. There is nothing on the wall right now, so it really stands out. The kids were so impressed. It was the first thing they looked for this morning when they woke up and anyone who has come to the house today has been taken back to show these pictures. I have therefore decided that every week's activity will go up on the wall - so at the end of the year, we should have the wall pretty well covered up with FHE activities that we have done together. It will also show just how well our family is doing with the whole focused FHE idea. Then I will clean the wall off and start again with the new year ... so, 1 week down and 51 to go!

More Reunion Memories

Before I completely forgot ... or let it get into next year. I wanted to put down a few more memorable moments from our family reunion in Mt. Pleasant - celebrating Grandma Marx's 95th birthday.
I was so grateful that Grandma got to spend time with the kids. She hadn't met Ben and Ginny and hadn't seen Joshua since he blessed - oh so long ago!

Mimi and Grandma utterly engrossed (and not at all bored) by ...

Papa and the kids. Those balloons provided amazingly versitile entertainment. The kids demanded that we stick them to the wall with magic (static) over and over and over ... some of those silly balloons followed us home too (thanks).

On a drive down memory lane with Mimi and Papa - we found the house they were living in when Angie was born. The babies couldn't quite wrap their heads around that one ...

Papa providing rides on a trip to see G-G-Grandfather's homestead outside Moroni.

Horseshoe mountain ... one of my favorite views on this planet.

The motley crew who agreed to follow Uncle Buzz on the historical tour - see us hanging on his every word?

Here is the homestead. Here it was that my great-great grandfather lived with two wives and 20 children. The wives were sisters (I loved the look on my brother-in-law's face when he imaged that set-up!) and no, there is not more to the house - just one room and a loft upstairs. I thought my 3 bedroom 2 bath home was too small for the 6 of us. Yikes!!!!!

Ginny's turn for the ride. I think that Ginny got the first ride and Ben pestered Papa until he got one too.

Byron and Papa talking. Don't know what about - that's okay. I love the picture.

Joshua and his cousins finding a sawdust pile in the next lot and deciding to "make it snow." Contrary to all expectations, there were no itchy children after this mess ...

Tess and the ducks. She spent every possible moment chasing, catching, and carrying a duck. When a deer was spotted in the back lot, Uncle Buzz overheard her saying "this place is just wonderful! Here I am carrying a duck and watching wildlife!" She said she was going to record it in her journal, I hope she did.

Robert and Bryce (who were inseperable the entire weekend) decided that the windfall apples made really good missiles ... until they got hit with a few.

Mimi following the babies ... and teaching them how to find good windfalls for eating. They ate so many I was sure we would have some upset tummies. Wrong again! I am not entirely positive that there were no worm involved, however. Still ... no one complained, so ...

More apples, more kids, and the ever-present duck ...

Ben displaying his table manners as we waited for lunch at the birthday party.

MC of the evening - Uncle Buzz. I wondered how he got stuck with that since he organized the entire event too. It was so great to see so many family members together - what a fun lunch! After the lunch we put Nathan to work taking family pictures outside Moroni's Opera House.

Not sure what Ben was doing ... Mimi had my camera. Great picture though!

All the grandkids getting comfortable for dinner. They had so much fun together!

Not a great picture, but I had to include it because Brandy (the one in the middle who doesn't look like she was up all night) bought us all necklaces. Big sister (that would be me), Middle sister (Brandy), and Little sister (Cyndi). The necklaces are great - also great was Cyndi complaining that she always gets the "little sister" stuff. Hmmmm, wonder why that is?

Family Pictures ... and One Awesome Photographer

I have sooo many postings to catch up on (I hope this weekend). Just to start, on Nov. 7 we all went back to Mt. Pleasant to celebrate Grandma Marx's 95th birthday. It was soooooo wonderful seeing to many family members - some I haven't seen in more years than I care to count! The best part is that my cousin, Nathan, has a photography hobby and he does some wonderful work! We pressed him into service and somehow, between a full-time job and family life (including a beautiful little baby) he managed to put this photo gallery together. We were grateful to have all of our family together (including Bryce and Tess) for these photos. You have to kind of wade through to find us as it is all mixed together, but I think it is well worth the effort. The link is http://photomarx.smugmug.com/Family-events/Grandmas-95th-B-day/10580200_7b32x/1/735136925_SQqFS#735136925_SQqFS