Basket Brigade 2014...

Last year, Merril and the older kids put together Thanksgiving dinner baskets for needy families. Brent and Andrea P. are part of the committee for the Basket Brigade of Southern Utah.  Donations are gathered and needy families are nominated and selected.  We show up the Saturday before Thanksgiving and put together baskets and deliver them.

The kids are amazing helpers and I think it's a great service opportunity for them.  The baskets were heavy so it took at least 2 to carry it. 

Odds and Ends...

These pictures don't really have a cohesive theme or follow a life event but I still feel they are noteworthy.  I was at Merril's storage unit with my camera and Mikayla wanted me to take pictures of her running.  I think she's adorbs.

Mark is being a stinker, completely dumping out a container of pretzels all over the floor.  He knows he's been caught too.  Check out his face.  Ok, he's adorbs too.

And here are my girls, making pretty dresses out of blankets.

Other than that, I've been trying to get some Christmas shopping done to get a jump on the season.  Having 5 kids means buying 10 cousin gifts.  Suddenly that seems like a lot!

Literacy Night...

Literacy Night this year entailed dressing up like a word.  Juliet was 'Sparkly' and she is covered in spray glitter.  Jack had an old crocodile hat so he was set as a crocodile.  I threw together a last minute sign that said 'stroller' and pushed Mark around.  I couldn't believe how many people thought it was funny.  The two signs I spent the most time on rarely got a chuckle.

To be honest, coming up with costumes right after Halloween was a little annoying.  But it was fun and I'm glad we pulled something together and went.

Jack had a birthday, shout hooray...

Merril was able to use a rock climbing wall from the Search and Rescue facility and so we had a rock climbing birthday for Jack!  He turned 9.

They played on that wall almost the whole time, just stopping to have some pizza and cake.  We had neighbor kids and birthday kids on that wall until it was too dark to climb!

Merril and I spent the better part of a day harnessing up kids and attaching them to the pulleys.  The whole automatic belay system was super amazeballs!  

I didn't even get a picture of Jack on the wall, just Mikayla.

Mark just ate cake and had a nap.  Gross!

Jack is horrible about saving money, loves Legos, taking apart cars and is Mark's best friend.  Mark and Jack are so cute together.  Jack can make him laugh more than any other person, including me.  I love my boys!

Wow, Maxine is 12...

Maxine turned 12 and I can't believe it.  She's so grown up, she only wanted clothes and make up for her birthday.  *sigh*  It was bound to happen I guess and she's growing up to be a great person.  I just hope I can make it.  12-18 is such a monumental period is a person's life.  So much personality is shaped and I want to protect her from all the garbage out there.  She already makes good decisions, I hope the trend continues.

She wanted to be able to do baptisms for the dead as soon as possible and our ward was going a few days after her birthday.  Luckily, I was able to go with her because the YW were short on leaders.

Maxine is a huge help to me by babysitting a lot and helping out.  I'm sure she can't wait to go on real babysitting jobs and make real money.  Not that I blame her.  Just can't believe how fast she's growing up.  :)

Happy Halloween 2014...

So many costumes need to get ready!  Aaaaaaa!  I ended up telling the kids to dig in the costume bag and find something.  Except for Mikayla.  I really wanted her to be a mad scientist because she has such crazy, Albert Einstein hair.  Juliet was a Japanese girl.

Jack was a zombie and was amazing with the whole eye roll thing.

Maxine was a vampire.  The teeth were especially tricky but we made them work.

Mark wore an old Superman costume.

I dressed up as a pirate for the trunk or treat.

The kids got so much candy this year!  Ohmigoodness.  I'm thinking that maybe we shouldn't do the trunk or treat next year.  They end up with so much candy without much effort.

 Don't tell them though.

Little Mark turned 1!

My baby boy turned 1 so time for some pictures!  These were taken in the basement and Mark just kept trying to crawl away.  He thinks he's pretty funny.  

He's cruising and starting to get brave.  He's starting to stand up in the middle of the room.  He doesn't say a whole lot, just Mama and Dada.  He's pretty good natured but does like to bite!  Not maliciously but in a love-bite type of way.  Regardless, I've been left with a few bruises because of his rough, affectionate way.  He just laughs and thinks it's funny.

Overall, he's pretty sweet.  He'll snuggle his head into my face in the morning.  Then lean over to Merril and snuggle into his head.  Yep, we love him.

Birthdays mean cake too!  We never could get Mark to blow out a candle but the other 4 did and then we ate cupcakes.  

The kids made him a card.  Mikayla's just in panties because that's how she is lately.  She still makes a lot of puddles but we're just keeping in light and she seems excited about going to the bathroom.  We'll keep encouraging and I'm sure she'll get it eventually.

 Yum!

Grandpa Mark and Uncle Justin have birthdays in October so we had more cake and pie later that weekend.  

Tadpoles and froglets...

I didn't really think that our tadpoles would stay alive long enough to become tadpoles but they did and it's been one of the coolest things I've watched in a while.  

I'm amazed at these little creatures that grow legs and suck a tail in.  

Their mouths and skin change too.  Life is amazing.

Hike to Johnson's Arch...

Merril has recently joined the Washington County Search and Rescue team.  He's on the ground team and the high angle.  He's required to go to training for the first little while and one was held at Johnson's Arch in Snow Canyon.  Merril came home and said we should all go see it.  So we headed out for a Saturday adventure.

Mikayla and I kind of lagged behind after a while because she has such little legs and we had to stop to go potty.  She was a trooper though and kept up as well as she could.

The trail winds past a dry riverbed.

If you didn't know what you were looking for, you'd hike right past it.  The arch has sandstone right behind it.  If you look closely above Juliet and Mikayla's heads, you can see the arch.

We found a little pond that had tadpoles.  We captured a few to take them home and watch them change into frogs!

Backyard fire...

We had a family home evening marshmallow roast in the backyard.  More than cooking dessert, I think the kids just like to set things on fire.  I took a lot of pictures without a tripod and the result is blurry photos.  I still like them though. The curls coming out of the fire are fun!

To be fair, everyone loves to play in the fire.

Mikayla liked playing with sticks and flinging hot marshmallows at our faces.

Maxine rocking the top knot.

Julie the poser.

Yep, good times, even if it was just in our backyard!

Merril's 50 CC

Merril and his friend Ryan R. decided to qualify for another Iron Butt Association's long distance rides: ride from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast in less than 50 hours.  They flew out to  Savannah, GA and purchased bikes on the east coast.  Ryan's wife, Kim, is currently battling breast cancer and I'm amazed he was able to go.

 They collected water and sand from the ocean.

They ate dinner in Panama City, by the gulf of Mexico, and decided to go for a quick swim.  Neither of them brought a swim suit but Ryan had boxer briefs and so Merril borrowed some.  A true friend will lend you underwear.  

Ryan took a lot of pictures and as a result, I have a lot of Merril.  He's on the red and grey BMW in the background.

 They finished in San Diego, CA at 49.5 hours.  They took a little too much time the first day so had to bust it the second day to make it.

But they weren't even home yet!  After reaching California, they still had to ride home!  It was 3,000 miles on a bike before they made it back!  Merril said it was one of the hardest things he's ever done.