Family Bowling

We wanted to do something as a family the other night and we thought, "Hey, we haven't ever bowled together."

Parker was so excited he could barely keep it in.

Kora on the other hand wasn't so sure what all the hype was all about. Parker bowled from start to finish while Kora was a little more interested in finishing off her French Fries and dancing.

Quinntin and I have decided we are definitely in it for the experience because we CAN NOT bowl, at all. We probably took advantage of the bumpers as much as the kids did!

Special Delivery

We got such a fun package in the mail for Valentines!!! Thanks to all the Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins that sent their love from Salt Lake! Also thanks to Nana and Papa the kids loved ALL the goodies and fun surprises they found.

(Parker was especially excited to get his clothes back.)

We Love You!

Valentines Days

Two nights before Valentines I got this craving for a layered cake. (Since Schmidt's Bakery is now 3 hours away I had to be creative). I made two heart shaped cake French vanilla cakes and froze them. The next morning I cut each of them in in half and started my experimental cake. I had some left over raspberry canned filling ( from an earlier Cheese Cake craving) and some cream cheese frosting left over (from yet another St. Patrick's day Cupcakes craving) and I started to layer. Cake, filling, cake, cream cheese frosting, cake, filling, cake and all over Cream Cheese frosting. I then added some poof and pizazz to the top and edges and Ta-Da!

It Tasted Fantastic!

Then as I went shopping for something for dinner (mainly something different) and I found London Broil for a great price and thought "Hey I can figure out something to make with this." Needless to say I did but it was suppose to marinade for 48 hours. (that was a day too late.) So I only waited 24 hours.

We pulled out the fancy dishes and had a nice family Valentines. Dinner turned out pretty good and the kids loved eating a "fancy" dinner at their house. Kora and Parker even used their cloth napkins and little glass cups. They were adorable.

Valentines Coookies With Grandma Gray

Before Valentines ( ya I'm a little behind) we had our traditional Valentines Cookie Decorating Day at Grandma Gray's house. We have so much fun decorating the delicious cookies that she makes just for us. The whole family was there and we left with quite a sugar rush. Thanks Grandma!

Can You Tell What's in the Picture?

SLC "Two Day" Whirl

On Saturday January 23rd I received a message from my sister inviting my children to her daughters Chuck E Cheese birthday party that Monday the 25th. I thought about it for awhile thinking "I could have gone if I had know a little earlier and had some time to prepared for it" but then I also thought "They are going to Chuck E Cheese and Parker would love that!" So I made an impulsive decision and decided to head to SLC Sunday after church. I Had already commited to an opening prayer and to help with Nursery or else I would have left first thing Sunday morning. I ended up leaving Quinntin with some peace and quiet and packed up the kids for a two-day adventure. (Boy, was it an adventure!)
The moment we arrived in SLC we went to my sister's house to have cake and ice cream with my parents. It was a fun surprise for, Samantha, the birthday girl.

We ended up at my parents late that night and were all in for a good night sleep. We started off the next morning to Discovery Gateway with Nana and had a blast! I would recommend this place to anyone. (It's a little pricey but if you can find their 2 for 1 coupons it's not as bad). The kids played with balls in a tunnel system, played with water and little rivers, bought play food at the grocery store and so much more.

Four Weeks of Christmas

Wow! What a holiday!

It all started weeks before Christmas. First was Quinntin's family, we had a great turkey dinner at Quinntin's sister's house. We ate and talked and the kids ran around without a care. They had fund giving each other presents and then running off to play with them.

We also got a great family picture with only two tries.

Because Quinntin works retail we had to work around the shopping holiday. The weekend before Christmas we were able to spend four days in Salt Lake with my parents and a had lots of fun. We dipped all sorts items in chocolate from caramel to pretzels, from almonds, to cashews, and pecans. They tasted as wonderful as they looked.

(especially the pecan/caramel turtles! MMMmmm)

On Saturday we went to my extended families Breakfast With Santa Clause. Can I say he was the best Santa I have ever seen, authentic from his goulashes to his beard. He even read a story "Twas the Night Before Christmas" where the pictures had been drawn using him as the model.

The kids swapped presents and even helped each other open them Thanks Cayde and Kaetlyn.

Parker got to catch up with his 2nd Cousin Cambrie.

Kora and Cambrie posed for the matching outfit picture.

It was a fun morning, thanks Aunt Leesa, as always, it was wonderful!

Later that evening we exchanged presents with the grand kids in my family. They loved being able to give each other presents and had a blast.

Our Own Christmas was a lot of fun Parker kept asking " When Santa come?" and When he finally did the kids scored! Aside from the clothes and socks, Parker got a cool drill and airplane set from Grandpa and Grandma Reynolds and Kora got a cute red soft teddy bear. The kids also got Connect Four from Grandma and Grandpa Gray (They love "checkers")


Quinntin got a Guitar for his PS2 and my kids made me this cute duck! It was so cute.



Continuing on through the month for New Year's Eve Nana and Papa got to come and stay with us! The kids loved waking up and finding Nana a Papa in the mornings!
We opened more wonderful presents, made laying down snowmen and just hung out. The kids are still talking about what Nana and Papa left them.




In short we are truly blessed to have such an amazing family!