Sweet Conner

Conner is so sweet with his siblings.  He is particularly mindful of Elli and Sophi.  He will often give them hugs and talk to them.  In spite of Elli's special needs, he often reaches out to her and tries to let her know she is loved.   We're so grateful to have him in our family!  Thanks for being such a great big brother!

Cousin Ben

Over Valentine's Day weekend, my nephew Ben came to hang out with us.  He LOVES Xander and always looks forward to seeing him:)  And Xander loves it when Ben comes to visit.  Thanks, Ty and Laura for letting him stay with us.  Here are Ben and X-man all dressed for church:

Fashion Models!

Happy Birthday Lex!

Lexi is often at Grandma's house for her birthday it falls right after Christmas.  But even if she's in Ferron, she still gets breakfast in bed, gifts and birthday cake (Or, this year, cupcakes:)

We didn't get around to her actual party for a couple of months.  Lexi has always wanted an outdoor Teen Beach Movie party, but with a birthday in the dead of winter, that hasn't usually been feasible.  But with the unseasonably warm weather we had this year, we had a beach party in February!  She had pictures at the "beach," outdoor games, and even a campfire with hotdogs and S'mores.  Happy birthday Lex.  You are SUCH a special and important part of our family:)

Not Sure Where She's Headed, But She Sure is Cute!

Field Trip Fun

Last month, Xander invited me to attend his school field trip with him.  I was so excited!  We went to the natural history museum of Utah.  It is a fantastic museum which we would both recommend.  We saw many exhibits, ranging from dinosaurs (Utah had TONS of them) to Native American cultures to predators to how the various land formations came about.  It was a fun activity.  Thanks for the invitation, X-man!

Watch Your Weight!

Christi and I and several of the kids were in the kitchen preparing dinner.  

Me:  "Christi, we could have some Sophi stew tonight."

Sophi:  "NO!  We could have some Daddy stew tonight!"

Parker:  "No thanks, we've already had enough fatty food today."

Hey, now...

Places You Might Find Elli If You Turn Your Head For Two Minutes...

...time to put down the camera and rescue our little adventurer!

Conner and Lexi Love to Ski!

Almost every month during the school year, the Utah School for the Blind takes visually impaired kids on an overnight field trip.  They do many different types of activities including life skills (going to the store, riding the bus and train), sporting activities (Miller Motor Sports Park Racetrack, Curling) and outdoor events (fishing, snowshoeing).  In January they were going to go skiing.  Both Lexi and Conner were about the trip, so I said I would go with them for the skiing portion.  It ended up being a great experience.  Conner loved being on the mountain and keeps asking if we can go again.  We're so grateful for so many great programs that are a blessing to our kids with special needs.  And so grateful to the many wonderful people who work for or volunteer for these programs:)

Newest Addition To The Family...

We have probably posted a picture or two of Molly on the blog, but I'd don't think we've formally introduced our newest "child."  So here she is.  Molly was born in October of last year and we got her in December.  The kids all love her (although they are not always enamored with the work she adds to our lives).  She is a beautiful golden doodle.  She is still very much a puppy and we have been dealing with many of the challenges that entails, but with the help of a WONDERFUL trainer, she is improving rapidly.  But she is still very inquisitive and has lots of energy.  Sophi can't stand to be away from her and tends to be a little to shadow for Molly.  Elli loves it when Molly comes up and gives her unrestrained kisses.  All in all, a good addition to the family:)

A quick trip to Walmart for the Greens:)

From Sophi with Love

Sophi has a beautiful white church dress.  Since today is dress down day, she wanted to wear it to school.

Sophi:  "Mom, can I wear my white dress today?"

Christi:  "No, it's too fancy for school."

Sophi, very earnestly:  "Oh, 'cuz then all the boys would want to kiss me?"

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After getting all the kids off to school, Christi and I plopped down on the couch to talk.  We discussed a small bit of conflict we had had with one of the children this morning and (not for the first time) talked about how challenging it can be to meed all the needs of so many kids.  Feeling just a bit frustrated with how hard you can work at parenting and how little they sometimes appreciate you for it, Christi said:  "Bleech.  Kids!"

Sophi immediately called her on it:  "What do you mean, bleech, kids?!?"

We quickly reassured her that kids are the best and that they make our lives SO awesome.  Thanks for the reminder, Soph!!!

Family Home Evening

For years our church leaders have encouraged us to hold a weekly "Family Home Evening."  Each Monday night is set aside for time with our family.   No church meetings are planned for Monday nights.  We try the best we can to avoid scheduling other conflicting events as well.  The format for the evening isn't super important.  What is important is spending time together.  Our typical family home evening goes something like this:

Opening Song

Opening Prayer

Lesson

Activity

Closing Song

Closing Prayer

Treat

One child is in charge of conducting the meeting, and each of the above items is assigned to a different family member each week.

For the most part the kids love it and look forward to it.  Even the older ones are engaged most weeks.  This is video from two different weeks of activities.  The first week we played a game where everyone is assigned a color.  One person stands in the middle with a rolled up newspaper.  Mom or Dad calls out a color and the person with the newspaper has to remember whose color it is and whack that person on the head.  The person who is about to be whacked has to call out a different color before the person in the middle gets to them.  Once the person in the middle whacks someone in time, that player becomes the new person in the middle. With our group, some accommodations need to be made.  For Sophi, one of us would hold her and she would hold the newspaper with her feet.  Then Parker got a better idea...

The second week we played the dice game.  Very simple.  Everyone has a piece of paper.  There is one pencil in the middle of the table.  Each person takes turns rolling two dice.  When somebody gets doubles, they pick up the pencil and start writing out the numbers 1 through 100.  When somebody else gets doubles, they grab the pencil from the previous person and they start writing.  The first person to write every number up to 100 is the winner.  As you'll notice, it can get pretty animated (especially when you're playing with Graci:).  Conner and Christi were a team.  Christi rolled the dice, and when she got doubles, Conner would braille the numbers.

Sophi Teaches Us About Easter

Save a Tree?

Taylor:   "Dad.  Come upstairs.  It's worth it!"

Me, as I'm walking up the stairs:  "What."

Taylor:  "Close your eyes."  He leads me into the bonus room.  "Open your eyes.  These are all of the papers from 3rd quarter that I'm throwing away!"

He's always been a bit of an artist, especially with geometric shapes:)

Disney for Lexi

Most of our posts have lots of pictures, which most of our kids love to peruse.  This post is for Lexi.  I put together a few video clips of her.  She loves to listen to these and remember our trip.  If you want to watch as well, the thing that most stands out to me is how sweet the characters are with our special needs kids.

More Disney!

Sophi took many selfies on the trip down.  We'll just share one of them:)

We stayed overnight in St. George.  Christi's sister has a wonderful mother- and father-in-law who let us crash at their house.  They have a great dress-up selection for their grandkids:)

The Tower of Terror lives up to its name:

After a couple of times on the same ride, you get to know when the pictures are taken.  Love the poses!

Nice, Park!

A Bug's Life kiddie rides:

Up in Tarzan's treehouse.  It's crazy to think these boys first came here at ages 1 and 2!

If you take selfies on Dad's phone, know that they may end up on the blog:)

Taylor's favorite Disney food has always been the pretzels:)

On the Carousel:

Somehow Parker always manages to situate himself next to the pretty princesses.  Hmmm...  Coincidence?  I think not!

Lots of pumpkins at Disney in October!

Lunch with the princesses at Ariel's Grotto:

Way too cool!

At Duke's restaurant in Huntington Beach.  You don't go away hungry!

Conner's (and Dad's!) favorite Disney food:  The turkey leg.

Good-bye Disneyland!  We'll miss you!  Hope to visit again!!!