February - first part

On February 1st Byron was given 2 tickets for the Nu Skin suite.  It was fun meeting many that Byron works daily with and their wives.  The game was also fun to watch.

Bradley was so excited to exchange valentines at his preschool.  As soon as I bought valentines, Bradley was excited to write on his.  He wrote all of them by himself.  I loved how much time and care he took to make them all look great.

I love these two school projects that Parker & Carter did.  Sometimes they try to throw things away before I get the opportunity to look at them.  Luckily these weren't tossed first.  Parker wrote, "Five adjectives that best describe me are funny, friendly, smart, kind, cool.  My best characteristic is I'm a helpful person because I help my mom time to time."  Carter wrote, "Five adjectives that best describe me are awsome, a twin, good at 4 square, smart, good student.  My best characteristic is gets excited.  I get excited over fun stuff."  I love these two boys so much!

Carter & Parker with Mrs. Gunther.  They also have Mrs. Meyring as their other teacher, but she wasn't there for parent teacher conferences.  It was so fun to hear Mrs. Gunther go on and on at how much she loves having Carter & Parker in her class.  It is always so nice to hear that they are well behaved in class and great students.

Johnathan has Mrs. Sorensen this year for 6th grade - what an amazing teacher!  She just went through a rough year with her husband having cancer and ended up passing away right before school started (end of July).  Camille had her and what a huge difference she made in Camille's life.  She just has a special knack for teaching and truly affects lives.  Johnathan was so excited to find out before school started that he got her - she was on his wish list.  The funny part was that Camille actually cried when she found out she got her because she had heard how mean she is.  Camille soon learned different and fell in love with her also. 

Johnathan with some cool things he made at school that were on display in the hall.

Byron headed to Singapore from February 7th-12th for the GAC conference.  Singapore is one of his favorite places so go.  He looks forward to taking me there one day:). 

This is some fish and chips that Byron ate while there and the people he was with below.

At this particular restaurant on Sentosa Island, they were able to pick their own crab from a tank - then the worker brought it over to them while it was still alive to make sure that was the one they wanted.  Byron's favorite food to eat is spicy chili crab and he was so excited to have it again. 

 Sentosa Island is next to Singapore.  You can take a cable car ride across the sky to get there - it lasts about 30 minutes.  Sometimes when Byron had been on it, the wind has picked up and it was pretty scary for a while.  This time was no different as some of the women with Byron were pretty scared.

 A cool sandcastle of a dragon.

 Byron with his group of GAC next to the Merlion in Singapore.  During the evening, it changes colors - pretty impressive structure.

Bradley with his fun valentines from Preschool - he was one pretty happy kid!

For Parker & I's night out, he wanted to see "Journey 2 the Mysterious Island."  I wasn't thrilled to go see that show, but ended up really liking it.  It was fun to just have Parker with me.  He also had fun eating a churro.

Parker, Bradley, Carter & Johnathan were so excited to get an ice-cream cone from Maceys.  They were humongous! 

January Happenings - Part 2

On January 22nd, up at the Conference Center was celebrated the 100th year of Seminary.  Camille got tickets.  It was fun to go up and hear the history of seminary along with some amazing talks.  Such an awesome program that Camille is apart of and I had the privilege of being in. 

We really didn't get any snow until January 23rd.  We had gotten a few skiffs before, but nothing that needed to be shoveled.  Tanner & Bradley were loving the snow and had fun making a snowman.  It still didn't amount to a huge amount, but enough for them to play in.

Byron went to Miami, Florida for a conference from January 23rd - 26th.  He was able to learn a lot and enjoy the beauties of this area.  He was even invited out on a yacht with some other people for a lunch one day.  He thought he would go out to sea, but ended up staying tied to the dock the whole time - he was a bit disappointed.  He said it was a beautiful boat.

Beautiful Miami- one day I hope to come here with Byron and possibly take a cruise:).

This is a mess that Bradley made in about one hour.  He did keep himself busy, however, which is some thing that he doesn't do very well by himself.  Bradley also had fun helping me clean up this mess:).

Johnathan's first Court of Honor after turning 11 - he helped with the flag and was able to receive quite a few merit badges and earn 1st class.  He is very motivated with scouting and is lacks only one required merit badge to get his Star rank. 

Johnathan getting his awards with his amazing leaders - Bishop Jensen, Brother Lemon & Brother Slaugh

Tanner also received some awards - along with earning his Star rank - he also has some amazing leaders - Brother Whitehead, Brother Hamblin, Brother Wilcox and of course his dad (who was in Miami).

Science Fair - Johnathan was so excited to be able to do his own project.  Tanner & Camille were both required to do one for 5th and 6th grade.  Johnathan, however, only had to do one in 6th.  He ended up getting green bananas and putting them into 4 different environments.  Then everyday he took a picture of each of them and after a week decided what environment is best to keep bananas from not ripening as quickly.  He found out that our food storage room (downstairs) which keeps an average temperature around 67 degrees is the best spot.  I was so excited to learn this info and now keep all of my bananas downstairs.  I am surprised at how long they will last down their in the right temperature.  So I guess Science Fair projects aren't so bad:) as they really can teach us things.  Johnathan was so excited to get an Einstein Award with his project.

Every 4th Sunday, we get together with the Beck family.  In January Melissa was in charge.  She did a great job at having some really yummy homemade pizzas and then some balloons that went a long with her awesome lesson.  We all were able to let out balloon go outside to signify something in our lives that we want to "let go of."  It was really fun to have us all let them off together.

January Happenings part 1

Byron had January 2nd off so we enjoyed some family time. We headed down to Orem and had fun going to Krispy Kreme. It is always fascinating to see the donuts getting made and of course to eat them is another story. After that we went down to Provo to eat at the famous "J Dawgs." They have some amazing hot dogs with this special sauce they put on them. They were good - some of my kids weren't crazy about them.  After that we enjoyed going to check out Byron's work.  It had been a while since we had been in his office area.  It is always fun to see what his work environment is like since he spends more time there every day than at home (at least it feels that way most days:).  It was also cool to see the progress of the Nu Skin building - they are coming a long so quickly.

Carter, Parker, Tanner, Johnathan & Bradley

 Yummy J Dawgs! 

Byron's office

 The new building is coming along fast.  Really cool to see.

This will be the sight of the new Temple - how awesome for Byron to see it every day and work right next to one. 

I was given one of the largest cards I have ever had by my sweet Carter.  He is so thoughtful and kind!

Bradley squeezing his body into a very skinny box - he was proud of his accomplishment and then ended up going down the stairs in it.

Rock climbing at Trafalga - he was too nervous to get very high, but enjoyed going up about 6 feet and then starting over again.

The typical mess of Bradley Beck!  He leaves a trail wherever he goes.  He was having fun taking apart his broken remote control car from Christmas. 

Tanner & Johnathan were able to complete the Sculpture Merit Badge thanks to the help of Wendy Jacobs.  She is so talented and was willing to take the time to help these boys earn theirs.  They came home with really cool faces out of clay that they had sculpted.  It was fun to see them continue to work on them the next week as they tried to get them as smooth as possible. 

We started the new year with all mutual being on the same night - yahoo!!!  I have been waiting for this day to happen for quite some time.  Camille used to attend Young Women's on Tuesdays and Scouts was on Wednesdays.  Now all 4 (Byron, Camille, Tanner & Johnathan) all go at the same time.  We had fun going out for a treat while the rest were all gone.  I let my kids experience fried ice-cream.  We got 2 and shared them - they were delicious and gone within a couple of minutes. 

 Parker & Carter devouring theirs.

Bradley & I - it was so good!

Camille participated in the Stake Honor Choir with her choir class - it was really fun to go up to Layton and see them perform.  There were about 200 students from all over Utah participating.  She had spent the previous day from around 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. up in Layton perfecting the songs.  We were so glad that Dad & Mom Beck & Melissa were able to join us there.  We had fun going out for some dinner afterwards.

(Carter, Parker & Bradley having fun playing games)

We spent Martin Luther King's Day up at Grandpa & Grandma Beck's house.  We had fun playing Lumber Yard - a lot like jenga where you try not to let the pieces fall.  Every body enjoyed playing. 

Carter concentrating as he lays a piece down.

 Byron went on a scout camp out up to Crystal Hot Springs on January 20-21st.  Poor Johnathan wasn't able to attend his first camp out in scouts due to a flu bug.  He was so sad.  Tanner & Byron went and enjoyed swimming the first night.  Then during the night it started raining and the next morning.  Here they are getting breakfast while they were soaked. 

Tanner & Brandon Slaugh

Austin Hinckley, Chandler Baker, Brandon Slaugh & Tanner getting some reprieve from the rain.