New Beginnings

The decorations at New Beginnings last night were so adorable.  They served a delicious dinner of soups, salad's, rolls and cheesecake's! 

The theme for both the young women and young men is: Stand ye in Holy Places and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come: for behold it cometh quickly saith the Lord.  D & C. 87:8

 They did an adorable program of the Young Women in a pageant. Each of them representing a value and from a place in Church History!

 At the end they asked Jolie and Anna the two girls that will be joining Young Women this year to come up on the stage.  They had a paper with some information and stories about each of them. This is what Jolie's said:Name__Jolie Lauren Fox___

Born _April 11, 2001____ in (City/state) ___Orem,UT.

Favorite Color____pink and aquamarine

Favorite Ice cream flavor__bubble gum

Favorite Book______hunger games

Favorite movie ____Life of Pi_____

Favorite Hymn__I love to see the Temple_

Favorite Scripture __Nephi building the ship and getting the instructions from Heavenly Father.  

Favorite activities__Read, play temple run and other games on the kindle. Bowling, and anything fashion....and of course texting on her phone!

Special Talents __Jolie is really good at cooking.  She has been an amazing babysitter to her younger siblings.  She has a gift of compassion. She will always go out of her way to make sure who ever is sad knows they have a friend. _

Parents favorite childhood memory____When Giselle was born it was in the middle of winter and hospitals were very afraid of germs.  So they wouldn't let any kids into the hospital where Giselle and I were.  Of course this was very hard for Jolie because she was SO excited for her new baby sister to be born.  Daddy brought her and her siblings up to the window outside to see her.  It was freezing but all I could see was Jolie's smiling face so happy to see her little sister.  When I came out to the waiting room by myself.  because I wasn't allowed to bring Giselle out with me. Jolie cried.  It brought tears to my eyes because she was so sad and also brought tears to my eyes because I knew how much she loved her little sister already and that they were meant to be the best of friends.  To this day those two have a special bond that I know was formed in heaven.

 At the end each of the girls received a crown and their own bouquet of roses.   It was fun to see all the young women and see who Jolie is going to be spending so much time with these next few years.  The leaders are so wonderful and amazing and I am so excited for her to be with them.

 I still have a hard time thinking she is old enough to be with the young women but there she is and she doesn't look too little does she?

 Jolie was sweet enough to let her Mother join in on the photo booth fun and be silly!

 These are all the Young Women leaders!!  They really are the best!!!

Brett and I are transitioning into a new beginning as well.  Thankfully we have children that are truly blessings from Heaven.  We have loved watching her grow from this adorable little red headed baby to this beautiful young lady!!! We love you so much Jolie!!

Once there was a Snowman...snowman...small...small..small!

I'm not going to say Oh, I LOVE snow..but I have to say it is fun to play in the snow once in a while. If it's going to be cold and windy there might as well be snow.  We have had snow a little bit but not the snowman making kind....until now!!! It was the perfect snow...you just had to barely grab it and it turned right into a snowball.  So, yes I got on my knees and rolled a ball. I might have been the only one doing it and I might have not minded. It was fun and I knew the kids would like it once it was up.  I made the bottom to layers and Jillian made the head.  The bottom two were pretty close in size and REALLY heavy. I could not lift that middle one by myself. I tried and tried and finally asked my neighbor to help me. With her and two kids we finally got that sucker up there. Giselle was VERY excited to put the carrot in..and Jacob REALLY wanted Celery for his arms. So that is what we did. Jillian picked cherry tomatoes for his eyes and buttons.

 We had a lot of fun playing outside and probably lasted a good 2 hours out there. Jacob not quite as long. I think he got some snow in his gloves and boots and he had enough. Giselle lasted the whole time and was in heaven.  Jillian isn't in these pictures because she was a few houses down making over a 100 snowballs to throw at people.

 They loved this pile of snow in front of our house that the plow made. It's a perfect little hill for laying around or small sledding... so fun!

Sadly, it started to warm up and when we came home from church our snowman had fallen over...and couldn't get up. Giselle was the most upset about it.  She kept bringing me to the window to tell me the snowman fell. We agreed that he was taking a nap..so she is O.K. with that.
Luckily, we are supposed to get a bunch more snow today so maybe we can build a snowman family next!

Grandma Fox visits!

Grandma Fox came this past weekend for a visit.  She had heard about the train restaurant but had never been. So Jacob and Giselle thought it was time for her to go.  Luckily it wasn't crowded at all and we got to sit at the counter right away.  All aboard diner is just the cutest place.  She came to watch the girls basketball games and to see Brett coach them.  The girls played hard and it is fun to watch because they are really still learning the basics.  While she was here it also snowed quite a bit..I will post about that next.  It was a quick visit but we were able to get to two bakeries and have some delicious sweets.  Go swimming, eat pizza. Breakfast at the hotel. Go to church, play Monopoly and have fun.  Can't wait for you to come back again...it's always fun when Grandma comes!!

It's like no time has passed!

Amber and I used to see each other EVERY day...sometimes all day.  Our kids were the same age and we just clicked together.  Sadly, life goes on and Brett graduated Law School and we moved.  Then shortly after that Amber and her family moved too....to Illinois.  I really didn't think I would ever see her again.  When we moved to Illinois I was so excited to see this lady...BUT I didn't realize she was still far away...all the way at the bottom and I am at the top...seems like an ocean apart. So when she called and said she was going to be only 40 minutes from me. I HAD to see her.  The last time we saw each other Jillian was only 1 years old.  So yes quite a bit has changed since then.  I picked her up and we headed to grab a bite to eat. We sat down and my kids LOVED Amber..they talked her ear off and sat in her lap and acted like they see her all the time.  Amber and I laughed that it's been almost 7 years but we fall right back in like it was yesterday.  I love knowing that good friends stay good friends even when you are far apart.  We love you Amber and your kiddos and can't wait to see you again......SOONER this time!!!

Activity Days: Scripture basketball

Last week we had ALL 15 girls come to activity days. It was so fun to have them all there and luckily we had an active activity planned.  We used half of the gym and divided the girls into two teams.  We did a scripture chase.  I would read out a clue and than they would have to search for the scripture and then help there team to find it. Once EVERYONE on the team had the scripture the girl in the first chair closest to the basket would shoot the ball until they made it.  It was a lot of fun and fun to watch the younger girls beat the older girls at times.  I got the idea on line. I can't find the original link but here is one that has a lot of the questions we used : scripture questions!  It was  a lot of fun and it was fun for the girls to see and learn how to use the tools in the scriptures to find things.  We finished up with a game of knock out and brownies. I just love these girls and the amazing leaders I get to serve with.

Valentine's Day!

Jacob made this at school and I laminated it at home!

The kids V-day dinner: heart pizza and heart fruit pizza!

Valentine's Day was filled with candy, hearts and lot's of sugar!!! Luckily, Jillian and Jacob were the only one's we had to make valentine's for.  I found this really neat leather journal on etsy for Brett. I started cutting out the states we have lived in since we met.  I call it a map of our love.  We are excited to keep adding to it as the years go by.  It's amazing how many pages we have already filled up.  Sadly that night I got sick and was in bed by 10pm but thankfully we had a great day and everyone in our family could feel the love!

Tlustego wtorka ( Happy Fat Tuesday)

I grew up having Paczki's.  I never really knew why, but I loved them so it didn't matter to me.  Now I know that it was tradition to use up the butter and eggs before lent so the polish made Paczki's...a very yummy donut.  This year I had to go to a real bakery and get the real deal. I mean come on we are in Chicago we have to take advantage of that.  So I called two bakery's. One was really close to my house but only had 4 flavors the other was a little farther away but had 20 flavors and I had heard some really good things about it. So I placed my order with the Busy Bee bakery.  I got there with Jacob and Giselle in tow and WOW...it was insanely crowded.  I am so glad I had called ahead to place my order.  We still had to wait a good 15 minutes but that was nothing compared to others and they had only a limited amount left and it wasn't even noon.    Now that I've had the real deal I will NEVER go back to the grocery store one's.  These were so incredible...I couldn't believe how good.   I really wish Brett's brother Erik could have been here to have one. He served his mission in Poland and really can appreciate the yummy goodness. He is the one who wished me a happy fat Tuesday in Polish this morning!!

Wesley's Baptism!

My nephew Wesley was baptized last week.  I was asked to give the talk on baptism. I had quite a few props that I was bringing so I was worried about not forgetting any of that, that I forgot to bring our camera. RATS. So I don't have any of the actual baptism day!! Later that night Giselle was spinning on my parents computer chair when somehow she smacked her eye on the desk.  It instantly swelled up.  She was such a trooper and held a bag of frozen peas to her eye for a long time.  It looked really bad the next day at church.  One little girl told her mom that her new friend was the girl with the purple eye...poor thing.   The best part of visiting family is the kids get to spend time with their cousins.  They are getting older and so it is fun to watch them play games and go sledding and just have fun.   Kristi's youngest Wyatt kept making the funniest face..he would pull his mouth down and for some reason it just made us all laugh. I was trying to get him in the act and this was the closest I got.  It is such a blessing to witness someone entering the water and be baptized.  Wesley you are a wonderful young man that we love so much.

FINALLY...real snow!

We woke up Saturday morning to lots of SNOW.  The kids and us were super excited. We have been wanting to go sledding forever.  So we ate a quick breakfast and bundled up for some sledding. We knew we only had about an hour because the girls had basketball games.  We have 2 sleds. One is pretty good and one isn't so great.  We piled them on and ALL of them LOVED it.  Giselle decided early on that she didn't like sitting in the very front but was very happy to be in the middle.  After a few runs we ran into a coworker of Brett's. They had a bunch of sleds and let us use a few of there's.  Jacob LOVED the circle disc.  He loved going by himself and than running back up the hill to soar back down.  He would try to go as fast as he could because he didn't want to share it..sneaky little boy.   We got adventurous and tried a few tricks. Once again I am amazed at my kids. They were so brave and tried everything and loved everything.  It was such a fun morning and we were sad to have to leave.
Later that day after all the games Brett went out to snow blow our drive way and sidewalks. Jacob really wanted to help. So he went out all bundled up and shoveled with Daddy.  He did such a good job.  In fact Brett took him later that day to help a friend who was hurt and her husband was out of town. So Jacob and Brett went and shoveled her driveway and Brett said he was a huge help and did a great job.  Jacob is just an outdoors boy. He loves any reason to be outside.

Genevieve's awarded!

Genevieve was recognized for Trustworthiness at her school. They had a breakfast for all the students being recognized and also invited parents.  Since it was at 7:15 in the morning Brett was able to go. 

All our daughters are wonderful examples of conduct and we love that people are watching them.    Way to go Genevieve, we love you!!!