2016 Snapshot

A couple of weeks ago, we all sat around the couch as I read the entire blog to the kids. We sat there for about 2 hours reading and we had so much fun listening to our memories. The kids are begging me to start up again. So for now I will try to do our family snapshot for 2016.

In General Conference in October 2010 President Uchtdorf gave a talk called, “Of Things That Matter Most”. I need to do better and follow the counsel he gave to us in it. He said, “We would do well to slow down a little, . . . focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things that matter most. . . . Strength comes not from frantic activity but from being settled on a firm foundation of truth and life. It comes from paying attention to the divine things that matter most. . . . Diligently doing things that matter most will lead us to the Savior of the World.”

With 6 kids I sometimes feel like I am running a million miles an hour (but getting nowhere). So I need to sometimes slow down and focus on the things that matter most. A lot of times I get tunnel vision and can only focus on what is right in front of me and what I am trying to get done at the time. These days it is get up, make breakfast, do school, clean up, do dinner, get everyone to bed, clean up, go to sleep and then start all over again tomorrow. I need to slow down and truly see the wonderful things I have been blessed with. One of my blessings is my, healthy, adorable, happy, energetic, crazy, beautiful, fun, weird, loving, goofy, amazing family. 

With that being said, here is us in 2016:

Luke has been learning to read and is doing great at it.

Quinn never stops talking (he only has one setting on his volume – loud).

McKinley is reading better – keep practicing :)

We got chickens last year and they have kept us busy making a chicken coop, frostbite, mice, etc.

Grant loves doing scouts, so far he has earned his 1st and 2nd class.

Jackie HATES math, but she is GOOD at it.

Quinn interrupts school every 98 seconds. Approximately 581 times a day.

Hannah loves to dance whenever she hears music. She has some sweet ballet moves already and dances with her eyes closed when she is really “feeling” it.

Luke won't eat anything if it starts with Dinner.

Jackie likes to cook.

Grant, McKinley, and Jackie are taking piano and are getting better.

McKinley and Jackie have fun at Activity Days.

Luke gets up around 5:30 or 6:00 every day – we try to finish his school before breakfast.

Everyone else gets up around 7:00 or 7:30.

Grant loves chess and he kicks mom's trash every time.

McKinley shares her testimony quite frequently on Fast Sundays.

Bart is the Young Men's President – he is a great example to them.

I am the wolf den leader and I also teach Relief Society once a month.

Bart is still working even though the economy is struggling badly right now – things are slow, but we are thankful for the work.

McKinley and Jackie are working on getting along together.

Hannah steals our hearts with her cute smiles and kisses. Don't take something from her though or you will hear her ear piercing scream.

Hannah calls most everyone “mom”. She calls mom, “mom, mommy and mimi”.  My favorite is "mommy".

Jackie is still and will forever be independent and courageous.

Family scripture study is done at the breakfast table – while everyone's mouths are full and they are somewhat sitting still.

We try to be done with school by lunchtime, but usually go until 1:00 or 2:00 most days (we start around 9:00ish). Sometimes we are lazy and don't finish until 5:00 or 6:00. :(

The kids like to listen to each others read aloud stories even though they have already heard them before. There is nothing like a fun book.

Jackie did my hair while I was doing her school.

Everyone had to get in the picture.

We have cleaning zones, but we need to change them up so we can add Quinn.

The boys room is a challenge to keep clean.

We need to get a bunk bed for the girls so we can kick Hannah out of mom and dad's room.

Hannah falls asleep in weird places.

We take baths/showers once, maybe twice a week (GROSS). One bad habit from homeschooling.

Quinn still likes to rub out ears when he cuddles.

9:00 church is hard when we aren't used to getting everyone up and out the door for school every morning.

We have pajama day at school about 4 out of 5 days a week (at least it starts out that way).

We need to do better at writing.

Hannah is trying to mimic everything we say, it's like having our very own parrot.

Hannah knows most of the animal sounds and loves to be a kitty.

I don't go to bed until 12:00 at the earliest most days and am usually up around 6:00 or 6:30.

Hopefully this shows what we are like in our day-to-day life. President Gordon B. Hinckley said, “It is not so much the major events . . . as the small day-to-day decisions . . . that map the course of our living.” So these are the things that make up our day-to-day in 2016.

For a little bonus, here are some pictures we took last fall:

Quinn was being a pill that night and we only got 1-2 pictures WITHOUT the faces.

Quinn said this was his "fiercest" face.

2011 Snapshot

So I am a little behind on blogging but I am going to make more of an effort. I am about a month and a half behind on things and can't seem to get caught up. I still haven't done a post about our vacation in August. Hopefully one day. There are just a lot of pictures and we did so much that it overwhelms me just to think about how to do a post about it. I will soon though (hopefully).

Anyway, I figured I should at least stay up to date as much as possible, so I will do our 2011 snapshot.

I have to start by saying that one of my favorite quotes from President Hinckley is, "Life is to be Enjoyed, not just Endured." So here are some things that I enjoy (and some that I don't).



Jackie stands on a step stool to eat. She doesn't want a bar stool or a chair. (That is good because we are in the market for some new chairs anyway.)

Luke would stay outside wandering in the backyard or a week if I would let him. (Aspen kisses / attacks and all)

Grant loves to read the scripture stories (I love that he loves them).

Jackie is always singing songs. (Not always the right words, but does that really matter?) Follow the Prophet and Gunny Bag are her favorites.

McKinley's hair is finally long enough to do pigtails since she cut her hair 2 days before Christmas.

I would rather read a book than watch a movie most days. I just need to stay awake longer or maybe I need to read at lunch rather than when the kids are in bed.

Grant loves that he is able to read more. (I love that I taught him how and I love to see hem get the words right and be able to read new words on his own.

I still haven't finished mending Barts work pants that have been waiting for a good 7-8 months for me to get to them.

McKinley likes to "surprise" mom and dad by setting the table for breakfast every morning. We have to pretent to not notice until we sit down, then be way surprised when we see what she has done.

The last 2 weeks I have not seen Jackie in anything other than McKinley's BYU cheerleader dress (aka. Jackie's Cougar dress - she also has to wear it with a pink t-shirt with horses on it. We wash it when she is sleeping or in the tub.) If we go anywhere I force her to wear pants under it.

Most days when she is not wearing the cougar dress, Jackie can be found wearing a skirt - SHE HATES PANTS. She will occasionally wear shorts "short pants".

Luke feeds Aspen everyday - twice a day. He cries if you do it without him - which rarely happend because he comes running when he hears us pouring her food into the cup to take it outside.

Bart has been doing a lot of reading as well, but is about to do nothing but watch basketball for the next few weeks (NCAA tournament).

McKinley loves ballet and is doing well in it.

I STILL yell too much, but I am working on it.

Bart is still in Young Mens.

I am the secretary in Primary. (I still don't know how I lasted 71/2 years in this ward without having a primary calling.

Grant asks about 5, 382 questions a week.

I have cried when I couldn't answer a few of his questions. (Satan's B-Day - It was a really long week and about 33, 682 questions OKAY!!!)

McKinley loves let Luke wrestle her to the ground - which Luke also loves.

Jackie quotes movies like they are going out of style.

Grant, McKinley and Jackie play really well with each other most of the time.

The kids love to play board games and card games. We even play imaginary go fish quite frequently. :)

The kids like to play "Evil Dr. Luke" or "Luke Monster". (They all run screaming while Luke chases them everywhere growling and "tickling" the air.)

When we say our prayers soeone usually prays for another to sit still or stop eating the food during the prayer. Apparently we need to work on closing your eyes during the prayer.

Luke still waves with his hand way above his head - it looks like he is really happy that you are coming - - - or going for that matter.

Well, I better stop for now.

P.S. Sorry for the lack of pictures, I have about 3 memory cards that need to be downloaded to my computer.

2010 Snapshot

When I first started this blog, I did it with the intention of keeping a journal for my kids. I consider myself to have a pretty good memory, but there are still a lot of things about my own childhood that I wish I knew. My mom never kept a journal and she passed away when I was 18. There have been more days than I can count since I have become a mom that I wish I could have her here to tell me what it was like when we were little. I would love to know what she did when this or that happened. Most of all I would just love to know her thoughts on many different things.


I started keeping little journals on the computer for my kids a few years ago, with little stories about each of them. Then our computer crashed and I lost it, now I just put it all here and we can all enjoy it and we won't lose it. I am also going to print it off so we can have a hard copy of it too.


While I was at the store the other day I ran into an old family friend and she couldn't believe I had four kids already. Then we were talking about how fun it is to have kids and how it will be gone before I know it. She then said something that I thought was pretty profound. She said, "The days are long, but the years sure fly by". How true that is!!! I hope that some day when I blink that it won't be completely gone. I am hoping that I can look back at this and remember what things were like.


Anyway, I saw this on a blog a few weeks ago and I am totally going to copy their idea. There are a lot of things and events that we remember such as vacations, holidays, etc. But it is the day-to-day things that we seem to forget eaiser so I am going to do a "snapshot" into our day for us to remember the little things. So when my kids turn into teenagers and we are all caught up in all the random activities I can remember what life was like when they still thought I was cool and wanted my attention. So here goes:

When Jackie takes a bath, we usually have to remove all the towels and clothes from the room otherwise they get sucked into the tub with her.


McKinley is 4 years old but she still climbs EVERYTHING! She has started to climb the door frames and hang from the center of the door. We are putting her in a ballet class this week so hopefully we can channel her energy elsewhere.

Grant is learning how to spell things. He can spell McKinley, Foxy, and Grant and he is working on other words as well. He loves to spell things on the computer, type them up, and print them out.


Grant and McKinley are learning how to make their beds and they are doing a great job at it too.


When we eat ice cream cones we have to use a spoon (I know - it's weird!).


This one has been going on for a couple of years, but whenever someone leaves our house, all the kids have to say (in this exact order) "Bye, See ya later, Have Fun, Be Careful", followed with blowing you a kiss.


When Jackie goes to the bathroom she has to strip down to nothing to do it. A week ago Sunday I forced her onto the the toilet at church WITH her dress ON. I won!! :)


Bart looses the remote to the TV about every 30 minutes or so.


When the kids see Bart going toward the TV they start yelling, "I don't want to watch football". He thinks I put them up to it, but he is WRONG! :) The fun thing is that when they want his attention, they tell him they want to watch football just so they can snuggle with him.


Bart is gone three nights a week (Young Mens, Young Mens Basketball, and His Basketball).


I am gone three nights a month (Enrichment, and Groceries twice a month).


We are finally at the point of not knowing how long we have gone WITHOUT having Family Home Evening instead of the other way around.


Our Family Home Evenings are between 5 and 15 minutes long.


I yell way more than I ever wanted to yell at my kids.


I teach Relief Society and I enjoy it more than I ever thought I would.


Bart is the 1st Counselor in the Young Mens Presidency.


We have about a million unfinished projects around the house.


We are outgrowing our house - our bedroom is our storage unit.


Luke just started to play with toys and the kids think it is fun to see him doing something other than just sitting there. He always gets a smile on his face when anyone talks to him.


Aspen sleeps in the garage at night and freezes in the back yard during the day - luckily it has been a relatively warm winter.


McKinley attends pre-school twice a week and is learning how to spell her own name.


Grant is attending Pre-Kindergarten class Monday - Thursday. He loves learning.

Grant loves to draw and is getting pretty good at it too.


We drink 6 gallons of milk in a week - Jackie is probably responsible for 1 1/2 - 2 gallons by herself.


The last few days the bus driver has to sit at our house for a few extra minutes because Grant stands there and yaks with them.


We wake up around 6:30 and 7:00 most days, but there have been 5:00 and 5:30 days lately.


We read stories every night on Grants bed - Scripture stories and another book of choice.


We rarely see the corner of the the bar, sometimes the bar itself.


Jackie has about three different laughs that I adore.



Luke loves to watch the kids play and loves it even more when they talk to him.


We are working on being reverent during our prayers.


McKinley won't give Bart a hug or a kiss in the morning because she thinks he is dirty when he is in his work clothes.


Grant, McKinley and Jackie are very good at saying please and thank you.


Luke likes to wake up in the middle of the night and talk and sing to us.


So there we go, us in 2010. :)