Tanner Byron Beck

Tanner celebrated his "10th" birthday on Wednesday. He asked me if I could take him out of school for lunch. He decided upon eating at "Panda Express." He was so excited to go there and eat. Carter & Parker told one of the workers that it was his birthday, so they gave him a free Gatorade. He was very embarrassed that they told, but was so excited about his free drink.

Bradley was loving his food also.

Tanner with his chocolate donut after we sang "Happy Birthday" to him. We will be having a friend party for him this Friday and a family party after that.

Tanner is:

... great with little children. He constantly has Bradley following him around wanting to play with him.

... very coordinated. He is AMAZING with balls - he has been able to throw them since such a small age and constantly has one in his hands. His brothers love going outside with him to play catch or a game of football or basketball. This past fall he was the quarterback while playing flag football.

... a great friend to all. He has never been without friends.

... a great reader. He LOVES to read every night and will sometimes even be reading two books a the same time. He just recently finished the 3rd Fablehaven book and loved it.

... a great singer, even though he is getting to the age where it isn't "cool" to sing. He loves to play "American Idol" with his dad and is right on key the whole time. His favorite song is "Life is a Highway" and knows all of the lyrics to it.

... a huge BYU football fan! He loves going with his dad to any of the games that he can. Tanner knows so much about football that he often blows his mom away with all of the football vocabulary he understands.

... is a good eater. He won't complain about food, but will eat most anything I cook for him. His favorite food are Dinner Patties with Rice.

... a wonderful son. He is so fun to be around. He has a laugh that is contagious. He is a great example to his younger brothers.

I love you Tanner and am so lucky to have you as my son.

(I was able to talk Tanner into singing part of "Life is a Highway" for this - he does a great job!)

Camille Play pictures and videos

Camille got some beautiful flowers from her Aunt Melissa & Grandparents. She was very excited for the surprise.

Thanks again for all those who took the time to come - it means a lot!

Below Camille was asked by the girl in the red/white hat to sign her program for her. Pretty excited girl.

Camille & I above and Grandpa, Grandma & Camille below.

In this video, Camille is the first solo.

Camille is on the far left.

Camille is on the far right in white. I had a man right in front of me whose head was cutting the stage in half so sorry about the panning back and forth in the video.

Camille Opening Night

Last night was the opening night for "Pirates of Penzance." We went as a family along with Mom Beck and Melissa - thanks for the support. We all LOVED it! What a fun and energetic performance - beautiful maidens, crazy pirates, great songs and dancing - what more could one ask for! Bradley even sat through the whole thing.

Camille was paired up with a boy pirate for the show - below is Kyson and Camille.

Aunt Melissa with Camille
Camille in her pajama costume.

Camille with her Grandma Beck.

Camille's good friend, Rebecca Parr, is one of the policeman. Camille was paired up with her during one of the dancing parts. The tallest policeman and the smallest maiden was quite a sight :).

We had one lady after the show ask who Camille's vocal coach was. When we said that she has never had voice lessons this lady was very surprised - natural talent.

I love Camille so much and am grateful for her being willing to share her talents with others. She has been singing since she could talk and has had a song in her heart since then. I laugh when she gets mad at her brothers for humming or singing. She doesn't realize that she has taught them everything they know.

POCKETS!

You may never know what you may find in your pockets - so always check!!!

The other day I was reaching into my pocket to look for something when I felt something folded up small. I pulled it out to find a $100 dollar bill - WOW - I had to take a double look to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. I bought these pants at DI about a month ago and had never put my hand into one of the small pockets of my pants.

I have learned 2 things: #1 Always check all of your pockets before donating clothing and #2 you may never know what blessings may come your way.

Rexburg Trip, Feb. 13-15

Since Adam is up at BYU Idaho, we decided to go up and visit him over the 3-day weekend. We left Friday afternoon right after the kid's got home from school. As we started getting close to Rexburg we could see the beautiful Temple off to our right. It reminded us of the Nauvoo Temple - just gorgeous! We also were noticing that the closer we got towards Rexburg, the more the temperature outside started dropping. I definitely wasn't prepared for the colder temps. I have enjoyed watching the snow melt the past few weeks, so seeing snow everywhere was not a happy sight. The temperature got to 10 degrees - brrrr. We left home with very little snow on the ground to see heaping mounds in Rexburg.

We checked into our hotel in Rexburg to find out that the pool had been drained the day previous. We had specifically asked for a hotel with a pool, so weren't very happy about this change in events. We ended up going to another hotel to stay, which ended up being such a nice place. After all of the crazyness, we decided that 9:00 p.m. was just too late to go and see Adam. I took Parker, Tanner & Johnathan to go swimming for 1/2 hour. They had such a great time. It took us a few hours to get all winded down for bed. Bradley especially had a hard time since he took a late nap in the van.
10 degrees outside and cute Parker while swimming.

We woke up at 8:15 a.m. We went downstairs to eat breakfast then went to pick up Adam at 9:30 a.m. It was great to see him. Byron & I met up at Ricks College, so it was fun to be back after being away for so long. So much has changed in 14 years including a beautiful new temple. We almost didn't recognize it as the same place. Byron lived at Bunkhouse while at Ricks and I lived at the Riviera. We enjoyed going back to show the kid's where we lived and get pictures in front of the apartments. We went to the temple grounds, but unfortunately they were closed for cleaning. The kids enjoyed finding some HUGE mounds of snow in the parking lot. We headed over to campus to walk around. Adam was a great tour guide since so much has changed over time and there is so much construction going on. We walked through my old stomping grounds and went through some buildings. One nice thing about the sidewalks at BYU Idaho are that they are heated - so snow never will accumulate on them for very long. I would love to have this technology at home:).

For lunch we headed to "Big Judds" to enjoy their delicious food. I had gone there once previous while Byron & I were engaged. It is actually nicer than I had remembered. The food was delicious! They are known for their humongous hamburgers that literally take up a whole plate. We were lucky enough to get "heart" hamburgers since we went on Valentine's Day. We definitely bought more food than any of us could eat. They have great french fries also. To top it all off, the kid's got to share waffle cones on our way out.

We went back to our hotel and enjoyed some water fun! I got into the hot tub for a few minutes, but then decided I was done. Camille forgot her swimsuit, so I let her borrow mine. I enjoyed just watching from the side lines and taking pictures. Luckily all of the kid's, except for Bradley, are really good swimmers so it isn't as stressful as it could be with 6 kid's in a pool. They had fun playing Marco Polo and other pool games.

Bradley LOVING the water. He kept going from Camille to Byron to let them hold him.

Carter & Parker being goofy. They are little fish in the water.

After we got done swimming, we decided to go see the movie "Bedtime Stories." We were actually pleasantly surprised. I loved it! I was really worried with Adam Sandler being the lead actor, but Disney did a great job.

After the movie, we went back to relax in the hotel room. Bradley & Johnathan enjoying the bed while watching some TV.

We played Spoons and Apples to Apples. We all had a great time enjoying being with Adam and spending time together.

Adam & Carter

As 9:00 p.m. neared, we decided it was time to take Adam back to his apartment. We enjoyed seeing where he lives and meeting a few of his roommates. Adam showed us his pictures from his mission since we weren't able to see them when he got back in January. What a gorgeous place he served in Portugal. The beach areas and water are breathtaking.

Adam on his bed with a cool "Portugal" sign on his wall. Below we are all hoovered around his laptop looking at pictures.

On our way out I had to take a picture with Adam in front of his door.

We had such a great time with Adam. We loved seeing him in his own element and being able to spend quality time with him.

We enjoyed sleeping in on Sunday, relaxing, and ended up leaving for home around 11 a.m. Byron wasn't feeling very good, so we were taking it slow. We got home around 4:00 p.m. and enjoyed relaxing for the rest of the day.

Thanks Adam for letting us take you away for a day and enjoy spending time with you!

Valentine's & LOVE

The kid's all enjoyed their Valentine's Parties at school on Friday. They all came home with huge smiles on their faces and hands FULL of candy valentines. What more could make a kid happy?

Camille even got a flower gram from school. She is paired up with a boy in the play she is in. This boy sent her a flower gram - WHAT??? Am I old enough to have a girl receiving flowers from boys already??? I am a bit nervous for the coming years. She was in complete awe and so excited!

Byron gave me some beautiful new Corelle dishes that I have been looking at for quite some time. I am so excited to finally have matching dishes. It has been 14 years and 3 days since Byron proposed to me (Feb. 11, 1995). I am the LUCKIEST GIRL to have met such an amazing guy! We have definitely been through a lot of both good and hard times, but wouldn't trade any of it. Byron makes me want to try harder and be a better person. I love him so much!

Month in Review

Here are some random happenings this past month.

KOREA

We started out the month with Byron going to Korea for 6 days. While in Korea he was able to tour the DMZ zone which is the border between North and South Korea. Other than the FREEZING temperatures, Byron loved going on his tour and learning more about the amazing country of Korea. As always, we are always so excited to have him back. The kids love to hover over him as he goes through his suitcase. He brought back some fun gifts and treats for us all. One of the biggest hits were some chocolate and cream filled cakes.

This picture was taken out his hotel window - look at how many lanes there are on this street. I counted 7 on one side - pretty incredible!

Here is the Mongolian BBQ that Byron couldn't say enough about - he said the food was SO GOOD!

Byron was able to go on a tour of the border between North and South Korea. Part of the tour was going down the 3rd tunnel. After the country was split apart, the people in North Korea would try anything they could to get out. There were many of these tunnels found that would go over the border into South Korea. The 3rd tunnel was the deepest tunnel they found. It is 240 feet below ground. The green part on the picture below is the tunnel the people in South Korea had to dig in order to find this 3rd tunnel. I know I would have felt too claustrophobic to be able to go down into the tunnel. Byron said that he had to wear a hard hat and hit his head a few times on the tour. Pretty cool opportunity he took to see the sights of Korea.
Above are the chocolate cakes Byron brought back. Bradley couldn't get enough of them.
Byron brought back these ties for Johnathan & Tanner.

Here is Byron with the kids all crowded around him.

I am so glad to have my husband back:).

SCHOOL

Johnathan was able to create a pulley invention with very little help from Byron or I for his class. He was so cute about this project. He has memorized his Wolf book for Scouts and when we were deciding what he would do he knew just where to turn for help. He ran, grabbed his Scout book and knew what page to turn to. He was so motivated with this project. I was able to go into the classroom and see all of the different inventions. I love being able to see them at school - watching them interact with their teacher and classmates.

Parker and Carter with their wonderful kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Cullimore. She is such an amazing teacher. One thing I love about her class is that when a child is misbehaving, she sends them back to their office (or chair) to sit. Instead of verbally abusing the child she believes that actions speak louder than words. I LOVE THAT!!! Only AMAZING people can handle the job of being teachers and I am so thankful for so many who sacrifice so much to make a difference in the lives of my children.

Recently Carter & Parker had their 100 day of school celebration. They were able to make a poster with 100 things on it. Carter made an adorable snowman and Parker created a beautiful nature scene.

CARTER

Carter received a guitar for Christmas and has decided that he wants to write songs. I love watching him carry around his guitar singing songs that he has made up while strumming away on the strings. With this kind of determination, I'm sure he will be a great guitar player some day.


BECKS 4TH SUNDAY GET-TOGETHER

We always look forward to being with family every 4th Sunday for dinner and a short lesson. Here are some fun pictures taken on that night. Camille is holding her new cousin, Timothy. He is so adorable! She is a baby magnet. Bradley wasn't sure about his new cousin. I'm sure one day they will be great friends.We also celebrated Michael's birthday while we were together and enjoyed some awesome entertainment by a friend of Michael's. Bradley tried on one of the many hats this man would perform in and looked too cute!

DRAPER TEMPLE OPEN HOUSE

On Saturday, February 7th, we had the awesome opportunity to go through the open house for the Draper Temple. Camille had a YW activity that morning, so unfortunately she wasn't able to go with us. Our tour was scheduled for 8:20 a.m. We arrived at a church building to watch a short 10 minutes video and then boarded the bus to go to the temple. We were so glad we went at such an early time because we didn't experience any crowds at all. After we got off the bus at the temple, we had to walk through about 7 different tents to get to the temple entrance. It was nice to be able to walk through all the tents without having to wait in long lines. The temple is GORGEOUS! Byron & I loved being able to talk with the kids about everything they saw. Carter & Parker on the bus.
Byron and Johnathan(above) and Bradley & Tanner (below) while on the bus.

Johnathan, Tanner, Carter & Parker walking through the tents before entering the temple.
We had such a great time and look forward to going through the open house for the Oquirrh Mountain temple in the summer.