Christmas Season 2020

We went to see the Christmas lights in Caldwell. I didn't take a picture of it, but everyone's favorite was the fire-breathing Loch Ness Monster.

The boys collaborated on a gingerbread house. It immediately collapsed, but they had a fun time making it.

We celebrated "Christmas Part 1" on December 22nd.

Silas & Gideon waiting for Ambrose to re-wake up so that they could open their stockings. (Ambrose was awake at 4am and then woke me up at 5am and then climbed into bed with me and fell back asleep.)

I told Silas that he couldn't touch any of the presents until Grandma & Grandpa arrived...so he camped out about two feet from the tree & stared at the presents & waited. 😀

On the 23rd, I drove the boys to Smith & Edwards where they were picked up by Peter and taken to Provo to enjoy "Christmas Part 2."

Earlier this week, I was going over a writing assignment with Ambrose and noticed that he hadn't capitalized the word "I." I reminded him that "I" is always capitalized. He seemed rather surprised and perplexed by this rule. It wasn't until the next day's writing assignment that I understood the source of his confusion:

It's been a busy couple of weeks and I can't believe that November is almost over! Last week the boys and I took a trip to St. George.

This week we've had a lot of fun celebrating Thanksgiving with family. Riki's family and Jace's family both got to come to Idaho this year.

Payden with some of her admiring fans. Ambrose refers to Payden as "the life of the party."

Halloween 2020

We had lots of Halloween-related fun this week. The boys had a Halloween party at their homeschool co-op on Thursday. On Friday, we went to Linder Farms and then carved pumpkins. Gideon also went to his friends' house for a party Friday night. Then on Saturday the boys got to go trick-or-treating and also watched part of the BYU football game.

My niece McKay made this Frido Kahlo cake on Halloween (we nicknamed her Frido-stein).

A couple of weeks ago we went to Babby Farms where we got to pet and feed exotic animals. It was lots of fun.

Silas named this friendly monkey "Lard Cakes."

The black blob in the background is a yak.

After Babby Farms we went to Grandma and Grandpa Stott's house where Ambrose rode Grandpa's pet steer.

We went to the bike park yesterday. The boys were huge fans!

August 31-September 13

Here are some highlights from the past two weeks.

On Saturday, Sept. 5th, we wandered around the Morrison Knudsen Nature Center. It was a beautiful morning and we got to see lots of cool fish, including a sturgeon. In the evening, we celebrated my birthday with family. On the following Monday (Labor Day), we had a family dinner and BYU football party at Grandma and Grandpa Stott's house. Ambrose chose to write about that for one of his writing assignments this week.

"The football game was awesome. There was good food. It was nice and there were screams. Our family from Idaho was there! The end."

This Friday, Sept. 11th, the boys had fun helping Grandpa with chores that certainly didn't feel like chores. Gideon got to use the riding lawn mower for the first time and couldn't wipe the smile off of his face. Ambrose was just as gleeful about using the leaf blower and Silas had great fun using the pressure washer. A little while after we returned home from Grandma and Grandpa's, Peter came. The boys were delighted with his new car and got to go on a drive with the top down on Saturday morning. They also went hiking with him.

August 16th-30th

The boys spent some time in Provo and St. George and celebrated Peter's birthday with him. Unfortunately, they also picked up the Coronavirus. As a result, there's not too much to report on during the past two weeks. Probably our most exciting event was the walk we took last Sunday to a nearby park. The boys practiced using their new digital cameras and these ducks became some of the most photographed ducks in the history of the world.

August 9th-15th

Riki's family came to visit for a few days, so we had some fun family dinners and also went to Eagle Island on Tuesday. At Eagle Island, the boys got to paddle board, kayak, and swim with their cousins.

On Friday, I drove the boys to Ogden where they were picked up by Grandma Wall and relayed back to Provo. The boys will spend the next week in Provo with Peter.

August 3rd-8th

We were able to close on our house and get keys on Monday, August 3rd. Since I didn't get the keys until late in the afternoon when it was already really hot, I decided to wait until the morning to move things in. The boys and I headed back to Emmett for the night. Meanwhile, Kodie's family and the missionaries surprised us by moving all of our furniture in and assembling it that night. The next morning was Gideon's birthday. Kodie took all of the kids to Wahooz for the day while my mom and I stayed and unpacked boxes. Wahooz was a big hit! The boys loved it and Gideon particularly liked the go-karts. In the evening, we celebrated Gideon's birthday with a sushi dinner and a brownie "cake" and ice cream. 

A couple of days later, Gideon got this awesome electric scooter from Peter which he has enjoyed riding all around the neighborhood.