Valentine's Day

I had an early Valentine's present come when I heard a knock on the door about 4 days before Valentine's Day. I was surprised to be greeted with a long box and the Fed-X worker told me "Happy Valentine's Day." I quickly found out that there were 3 dozen beautiful red roses sent from my wonderful husband. They quickly got cut and put onto my table - they were gorgeous and the perfect touch!

A funny story about the roses - I was telling my sister-in-law that Byron gave me 2 dozen roses (I just assumed there were 24 since there were more than I wanted to count and I just couldn't imagine getting more than that). Byron happened to be listening when he corrected me that there were actually 3 dozen - I felt awful!!! What a sweet husband I have!

Upon seeing the roses after Carter came home from school, he said, "Mom that is so romantic!" I got a good laugh out of him because "romantic" isn't even a word that he ever uses and it almost seemed like I had a little grown-up on my hands. I quickly told him that his dad is indeed.
I love you so much Byron!

Since Valentine's fell on a Sunday this year, we had quite a few days of celebrating it. The kids started out by having their fun Valentine's parties at school on the 12th. I was able to help out with Carter & Parker's party. The kids rotated to different stations and I was in charge of on eof them. We played a game with the conversation hearts to see who could build the biggest tower in a certain amount of time. Then I also had string licorice that they had to put the end into their mouth and see who could eat it the quickest with their hands behind their back. This game was really fun to watch and a hit with the kids. I absolutely loved being in their classroom and feeling just a little of what goes on when I am home during the day. Mrs. Skillicorn - their teacher - is so awesome in the classroom setting and it was also fun to see some of the kids that Carter & Parker talk about. The whole class sang a really cute Valentine's song before the mothers left. It melted my heart! (found at the bottom of the post)

Parker painting his salt dough magnet.

Parker & Carter at a center.

Here they are at my center - look how funny they look - love these two!!!

I love seeing the kid's excitement when they come through the door with their Valentine's boxes. They can hardly wait to dump them out and check out everything they got.

Parker

Carter

Johnathan with the cool bus valentine's box he made at home.

Tanner

On the 13th, Grandpa & Grandma Beck came over with Valentine's for all of the children. They are always so well thought out and so cute.

A part of Valentine's day is to tell those around me how much I love them. How could these precious children not be loved? (Bradley & Parker)On the 14th - I made the kids heart shaped pancakes with pink syrup. I thought they turned out pretty good, but there are those children that were a little leery of food being dyed a different color.

Carter's breakfast and the rest of the children below.

The day wouldn't be complete without heading up to Grandpa & Grandma's house. Eric & Melissa were also up there. We had fun playing games and visiting with each other.

Here is the cute video Carter & Parker sang to the mothers in his class. Parker is sitting at his desk and Carter is standing on the left.

Family Get-A-Way

On February 5th the kids had no school. We decided to plan a little family get-a-way to enjoy a break. We have been wanting to stay at the "Staybridge Suites" up in West Valley ever since we saw it being built. There is a cool water slide that can be seen coming out from the hotel. This caught our eye since most hotels don't have a water slide. As we began looking into staying there, we realized it really wasn't very expensive for all it included. There is a fun water area for the kids which include a water slide and kiddy pool area, a theater room, and a really good hot breakfast. We invited Jeff, Emily & kids to join us there for one night and had such a great time.

We checked in around 1:30 p.m. on Friday. We got one of the 2 bedroom suites. It had a king bed in the master bedroom and the other bedroom had 2 queen beds. Then there was a pull-out bed in the living area. The 4 oldest boys shared the one bedroom and Camille slept on the pull-out bed. Bradley slept on the floor in Byron & I's room.

We met up with Jeff & Emily's family and went to the theater room to watch a movie. What an awesome room! There was a huge screen on the wall with 10 leather theater chairs that reclined. Luckily the kids are pretty small and were able to squeeze two per chair. We watched "Ratatouille." Most of the kids were enthralled the whole time. Cadan & Bradley, however, enjoyed playing with the chairs and running around the room. Cameron, Johnathan, Tanner, and Cooper

Camille, Alyssa & Ashlyn

Cadan & Bradley

The seats were so comfortable & even had drink holders.

After the movie, we headed to the pool area while Byron & Jeff went out to get pizza for dinner. The pool was so fun! There was a really small kids area that had some cool ropes to swing from, slides and water shooting all over. There was also a basketball hoop that many of the older children played for hours. The large water slide was also a hit, other than there were height restrictions of 48 inches tall. This excluded Carter & Parker and can I just say they weren't so happy about his one. Luckily there were plenty of other things to do which helped distract them.

We went up above the pool area to the arcade area. Some of the kids enjoyed playing there after eating. Then we headed back down to swim some more.

The hot tub is shaped like Mickey Mouse. Bradley was so excited when he saw this pool - he wanted to swim in it. Unfortunately, he isn't allowed because he isn't over 5. He wasn't happy at all when he wasn't allowed to swim in Mickey Mouse's pool. Parker & Carter swinging from the ropes in the pool area.

After we had our fill of the pool, we headed back to our room and played games for a few hours. The adults played Rook together while the others played their own games or watched a movie. Everybody seemed to be having a great time.

Tanner, Cooper & Camille playing Phase 10.

Ashlyn & Parker playing Accumulation.

Johnathan & Cameron were enjoying the movie, "Bolt." They are true cousins when sharing a bowl of ice-cream doesn't even phase them:).

The adults having fun playing Rook. We played girls against boys the first time around then couples after that. It was so fun to enjoy a fun game with adults and the kids were practically entertained the whole time.

Now these 2, I'm not exactly what they were doing - it looks like they were getting into mischief to me :).

Dad & Mom Beck also came for about 1 hour to see us since they don't live very far away. We had fun visiting for a while.

After we had played for about quite a while, we all headed to bed. Here are Parker & Carter right before they fell asleep.

I think the kids all slept great with all of the swimming and playing from the day before. The morning did come pretty quickly, however. There is just never enough sleep to be had with 6 early risers!

We met Jeff & Emily & kids downstairs to eat breakfast. What a spread of food! We had omelets, bacon, muffins, juices, Belgium waffles, fruit and much more. My kids were loving the choices of food and that they could go back and eat as much as they wanted. After getting more than we ever needed, we went back up to our room to get ready to go swimming again.

I am so grateful that my children are such great swimmers. The only one we really need to worry about is Bradley and every once in a while a very daring child that does crazy things. They are definitely fish in the water and seem to never get tired of it - we are always having to say it is time to go long before they think it is time.

Byron is playing basketball with the boys.

Parker with the basketball.

Cute Carter has found out a better way to make a basket.

Byron & I in the hot tub together.

Bradley enjoying himself.
Cute Carter had to keep checking his height to make sure he still couldn't go on the water slide. I wish he grew faster, but it just wasn't going to happen. He was a pretty good sport about it, though. There are definitely times when being short really STINKS!
Bradley & I after we had our fill of swimming.
Jeff & Alyssa.
Johnathan relaxing a little too much!

After swimming it was time to check-out. What a fun and relaxing two days. We needed that break so much and it was all the better with family that joined us. Thanks Jeff & Emily for coming with us!

Myles & Rose

Sweet little baby Eliza Ashby was born on January 29th. We were able to see her as a family on January 31st. She is such a little doll and the kid's couldn't keep their hands off of her. They all enjoyed taking a turn - especially Camille. Myles & Rose loved seeing us and had fun sitting by Camille & I while on the couch.

Carter
Camille
The whole family - Dallin, Allyson, Myles, Eliza & Rose.

Allyson wasn't going to be getting any help until my mom came down the following weekend. I wanted to help her, so I took Myles & Rose for 3 days. Monday, Bradley & I came up to take them to our house. Myles and Rose loved being at my house at first. Bradley loved having somebody to play with every hour of the day.

It seemed like every time we ate, Myles asked for a corndog. I'm not sure if he doesn't get them very often or he really just likes them. He definitely ate his share of corndogs!

We didn't do much outside since it was still pretty cold and wet outside. We did take a library excursion one day to go to story time. After sitting for 20 minutes, the kids were done. Then we headed to Del Taco to eat lunch. I was excited for them to enjoy playing in the inside play area. I didn't realize that our trip would soon turn into a huge nightmare. The play area has 4 platform that have to be climbed for the kids to get up into the play area. You have to be pretty tall to get up each of these steps. Myles could do it no problem, but Rose & Bradley were too short to be able to do it alone. Myles was kind enough to help Bradley & Rose to get up. It took about 10 minutes for this process and a lot of coaxing from me. After they were all 3 up I felt relief that they finally could play up above. Myles soon comes down the slide a long with Bradley. After a few minutes I could hear crying up above from Rose. She was scared to go down the slide. I then sent Myles back up to try to persuade Rose to go down the slide. After another 20 minutes (or at least what seemed like 20 minutes), Myles was able to get Rose to go to the platform area. She was really scared to climb down, though, since it was practically her height if she jumped down. I quickly squished my body into the play area to go up the 3 platforms to help carry Rose down. We were finally down enjoying our lunch when Rose & Bradley wanted to go up again. I was sad to tell them that we weren't trying that when there was a little meltdown from Bradley. Then we had water spill all over the floor. I was anxious at that point to head home to get these 3 to take naps. So what I had intended as a very relaxing afternoon turned quite crazy and nothing close to relaxing. I decided that this was my last excursion with the 3 children. Home was a better option:).

I took them home Wednesday around 11 a.m. They really were fun to have around and helped remind me how much free-time I truly have with only Bradley at home during the days. I gained a new appreciation for Allyson and what she endures all day long. How quickly we seem to forget!!!
Myles, Bradley & Rose eating corndogs.

Rose & Myles at Del Taco.

Bradley at Del Taco.

Rose at Del Taco.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Carter & Parker - 1st grade -
Mrs. Skillicorn Carter & Parker have had such an amazing teacher this year. She is the perfect teacher in all areas. I love how cute she is with my boys and how much enjoyment she seems to get from teaching. She calls Carter & Parker "cute" and they absolutely hate that. Mrs. Skillicorn has twins of her own so she definitely has experience in that area. I told her from the beginning of the year that she would probably have to keep them on opposite ends of the classroom when they sit. I guess recently, though, they have been bugging her to let them sit together. She was so nice to let them and I actually think they are enjoying it. Mrs. Skillicorn can't rant and rave enough about their singing abilities and says they have such amazing handwriting. Nothing but positive comes from her mouth - she is just an amazing teacher to be with 1st graders all day and loving it. Johnathan - 4th grade - Mrs. Knutti
Johnathan has loved being in Mrs. Knutti's class. She is a huge cowgirl at heart and themes most everything she does around that topic. Johnathan is able to win sheriff badges for good behavior and loves the competition of seeing how many he can earn - he is greatly motivated by things. She meets in the same ward building we do, but goes to church at a different time. Occasionally we see her during our church time and it is fun to see how excited Johnathan gets to see his teacher. He also has many of his good friends from our neighborhood in his class: Tad Jacobs, Tyler Atwood and Jayden Cowan.

The fun cowboy Johnathan made in class.

Tanner - 5th grade - Mr. Cox

This is Tanner's first year having a male teacher and has absolutely loved it. He has been good to help Tanner learn responsibility. Mr. Cox plays the guitar and occassionally brings it into the classroom. He has a really fun way of teaching and getting the kids excited to learn. He has really cool math games he lets the kids play after they are done with their work.

The snowflake in the middle is one Tanner made in class that is hanging in the hallway at school.

How blessed I feel to have such an amazing group of people helping my children learn day in and day out. They almost see my kids as much each day as I do. Teaching is one of those jobs where the rewards aren't probably seen very much, so I am so grateful for amazing people that are willing to endure it day after day.