It's BBALL time!

Jolie, Genevieve and Jillian are all playing basketball this winter.  Jolie and Genevieve are on the same team which makes practices and games very easy.  Jillian is on a team with a friend so she really likes that too. This Saturday was game day.  It was so much fun to watch them play. All 3 are very new to this sport but are doing so well.  Genevieve has a lot of confidence with dribbling and takes it down the court almost every time.  Jolie is getting used to her height as advantage and is jumping up to get those rebounds.

 Jacob and Giselle are the best cheerleaders the girls could ask for. They cheer and scream for them the whole game. It is so sweet.

 There goes Genevieve she's taking it down the court.  You can see Coach Fox in the background.  He was very excited to help coach Jolie and Genevieve's team!

 Jolie is in the green penny. The other team had only 4 girls so one of our teams girls would take a turn on their team every few minutes.  It is Jolie's turn and she did great!

 This is the score at halftime...but when they came back they were fired up. I don't know what Coach Fox told them but they brought it and won 17-4.  Genevieve scored the final basket.

 Later that day it was Jillian's turn to play.  She has so much determination and really gets into it.  I really like how they have the girls wear sweat bands on their wrists and than they have to find the girl on the opposite team with the same color sweat band and than they know that is who they guard.  So clever, huh?

 She got right in on the action and tried so hard. She took great shots and dribbled really well.  At one point she had the ball and we all told her to shoot..so she grabbed the ball and ran around the court trying to find a good place to shoot it...she never dribbled the ball. It was so cute and funny to watch.  Later, she was shooting around and made basket after basket and I told her she needs to take more shots in the game. She told me..I can't there are too many people around.

Way to go girls. I am so excited to watch the rest of the games and see how much you improve.

Activity Days: New skills!

I love how our children are always willing to try new things.  Last week for Activity Days we had a very kind sister come in and teach them how to Crochet!  All the girls loved and tried so hard.  It's not an easy skill to learn and one you must practice often to really get good and comfortable at it.  I was able to spend most of my time with Jolie and help her.  She is like me and it didn't feel comfortable. I remember trying to learn as a child and it was very awkward and frustrating, but I learned that can change. When I tried it that night I really enjoyed it.  I got the hang of it quickly and thought maybe I could give it a try again.  Genevieve got the hang of it really fast. Since she really enjoyed it she started practicing right away.  She has been making chains after chains. This one she is working on right now she did in an afternoon and than went upstairs and dropped it off the balcony and it could touch the ground.  I love watching them learn new skills and than practice them.  Last night for F.H.E. Jolie prepared the lesson and made the dessert.  She did a great job and all the kids paid attention.  Way to go Jolie!

Baby, it's cold outside!

It's been very cold the past few days...like 1 degrees cold..with a wind chill of -15 and -20 BUT no snow. SO when it finally snowed, the kids were VERY excited!! Jillian and her friend went around to a few neighbors yesterday offering to shovel ( sweep really) their driveways if they paid them. They were so excited to earn 3 dollars.  It's great because she is getting baptized in a few months and so we talked about paying our tithing and she was very happy to be able to do that.

 Today Jacob wanted to get in on the action of shoveling.  As you can see their really isn't a lot of snow on the ground..just mostly sidewalks and driveways but if he wants to go out and burn some energy I wont be stopping him.

 Giselle said hey what about me? I want to help.  She tried so hard to push that broom..upside down!

 Giselle laid right down on the ground face down..at first she liked the snow on her face than quickly realized it was very cold and wanted it OFF!

 As Jacob and Jillian were shoveling Giselle followed them scooping up ice cream..oops I mean snow and eating it...she really did that the whole time!

 Look at those kids go...way to use those muscles and hopefully wear them out!!!

 Once everyone was nice and chilly they decided to come in for some warm banana bread and homemade vanilla bean frosting!

A HUGE bonus was Brett working from home today. So he picked Jacob up from preschool..made lunch for the little kiddos and than picked older kids up from the bus stop. We all love having daddy home!

Wisconsin Dells

It is very cold here in Chicago right now!!! So we were very excited to skip out of town and go to a waterpark for a few days!  We had heard lots of fun things about the Wisconsin Dells and neither Brett nor I had been to Wisconsin before so we headed over.  The wind was fierce but we got there and WOW was it cold.  The wilderness resort was huge and it was fun to see all the other resorts all around the area. The first picture is us in a shuttle heading to one of the 4 indoor waterparks. There was lots of fun rides for all of us to ride. Especially the fun family raft rides. Even Jacob and Giselle could ride those. Giselle would go from hating it to loving it. It was so fun to hold her on the tube.  

 The only hard thing was that it was still kinda chilly in the waterpark too! So the kids wanted to go in the hot tub a lot...ok, the adults too!

 They had warm towels to use..so that was very nice.  Giselle is being held by her friend's mom Jacquie.  They stayed with us.

 the second night the kids REALLY wanted to try some of the fun stuff out of the waterpark.  They had an indoor ropes course that looked really cool.  Jacquie and I took the kiddos while Brett and Travis kept the little ones at the condo to watch the football game.  It was a win/win situation.  Jacob was VERY excited UNTIL he got on the course.  He was so cute and brave but terrified out of his mind.  When we got back to where you could get off he yelled " I see the way out!" over and over.  He slipped once and the harness caught him but from then on he was so scared.  To be honest it really was a little freaky being up that high and walking on tiny ropes and boards, but we all did it and survived!
*** you can see in this picture Jacob was a little freaked out..this was right after we finished.

 after the ropes course they had a giant indoor play place that had 100's of balls all over that you can vacuum up and then shoot out. They had so much fun and got very sweaty doing it.

 This is inside the condo.  There was a bedroom and loft on the top floor. The big kids loved it.

                                                            Us with the Korella's!

 We could NOT be in Wisconsin and not get cheese. So we stopped at the cheese market and got sharp cheddar and bacon flavored cheddar.  They both are so good.

Daddy moments!

The last few months were just so crazy and insane for Brett at work.  So the kids have been extra clingy to him.  It has been wonderful because he has been home so much earlier and even working from home a little bit.  I will find Brett with a child or two or even three piled on him just loving him.  The best part is he loves it too.  Now that we have older kids mixed with younger kids we know to really hold on and take those moments when you can because they grow up SO fast.

Jolie's Miss America Party!

Jolie decided she needed to throw a party. Luckily the Miss America pageant just happened to be this past weekend.  So she told a few friends and than on Friday made a little flyer to pass out to all the girls in the sixth grade.  There is around 30+ girls.  We had heard back from about 14 which was a great turnout...little did we know that 21 would actually show up.  We put on the flyer that they could come dressed up if they liked...and yup they pretty much all dressed up. As the girls arrived we had them pick a state and I made a sash for that state.  Once all the sashes were made we all gathered in the family room for snacks and the show.  I had the volume the loudest it would go and it was still very hard to hear.  After a little bit we did our own poise and presentation, than talent part and than crowning of the winners.  Of course there were LOTS of snacks..normally when I host parties with my friends there are lots of leftovers...NOT the case when you have 11/12 year old girls. WOW, they can eat...and drink lots and lots of soda!

It was lots of fun and so fun to get to know more of Jolie's friends!  Oh and Miss New York won!!!
Brett was amazing and took the 3 middle ones for a fun night.  They were supposed to go glo golfing but the place had closed down and we didn't know it. So than they tried to go bowling but it was only for 21 and over so they went to tgifriday's and you would have thought it was the best night of their life. They LOVED it and came home raving about how amazing it was. So funny what makes kids happy.  Once all the kids left..there was a monster mess.  Brett got right to work cleaning up...I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful husband and father.

F.H.E. New Year Goals!

For Family Home Evening ( F.H.E.)  we talked about the new year and how it is common to make goals.  We started out with the Scripture: Mosiah 4:27 "And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order."

We discussed what the scripture meant and then we started our list.

The kids had some great ideas but we decided to only work on one for this activity! So we picked be more reverent during Sacrament meeting.  We got out a bunch of paper and wrote out "steps" we need to take to stay reverent.  We have afternoon church now so we wanted the kids to understand that it's important to feel the spirit before we go to Church so that you can feel the spirit at Church and so others can feel the spirit too.  

 So we wrote out our "steps" and than placed each one on the steps.  We decided we would put our "steps" out every Sunday to remind us and hopefully before next year we will be able to do each step on our own.

A close up of one of the "steps"!!!

Giselle is a Sunbeam!

A major milestone occurred at church yesterday! All 5 of our children are in Primary! Well, at least for the next 4 months.  Giselle went to Sunbeams yesterday! She looked so little but oh so cute.  She was a little nervous but they never came and got us and when I did see her..she looked like the above picture.  So yes I am pretty sure she LOVED it.  This year is going to be full of lots of changes and excitement.  Jolie is going into Young women's. Jillian is getting baptized. Giselle will start preschool in the fall. I will be HOME ALONE for part of the day. LOTS of CHANGE!!! I am very excited!!!

Downton Abbey Season 3!

I was SO excited for Downton Abbey to come back on.  It is ALWAYS more fun to watch a show with a bunch of cute, fun women!  So I invited people over and was so ecstatic that they were just as excited as me.  I pulled out the linens and was super bummed my China dishes are still in Virginia so my new tea cups and plain white plates were brought out.  My grandmother's cake plate was brought out as well.  We had so much fun dressing up as women in the Roaring 20's!

 Aren't these ladies FABULOUS!!!  I love the hair and headbands and all the necklaces and the smiles!!!

Thank you to my sweet loving husband that helped me get ready and dealt with crazy kids DYING to come downstairs.   Thank you to all my wonderful friends for coming and helping us all bring a little Downton Abbey out in us all!!!