Month: January 2013

    Tired Legs

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    Last week has been titled Tired Legs Week. It got the name because I indeed had tired legs at all times during the week πŸ™‚ We went sledding, snowboarding, and skating! I took a recovery day between each activity. It was a fun but tiring week. I must be getting OLD ’cause I’m pretty sure I could have done all 3 of those activities in 1 day back in my high school/college prime :).

    Monday was a holiday but Ben had to work so I met up with Ryan and Kelsey and we took the kids sledding at Rock Canyon Park. It WAS AWESOME! The sledding was great. Benji, Packer and Cali did awesome. They just grabbed a sled and went for it over and over again. The hill was well groomed and the walk back up was packed down so it was easy sledding. I pictured myself holding kids and everyone crying and being wimpy and only lasting a run or two. Rose did get taken out on her first run and decided it was too scary but she just watched from the top and pushed my sled down at least 20 times. Tara was nice enough to take Raymond for me so I didn’t have to bundle him up and try to keep him happy. It was by far the best sledding this little family has done. We spent the rest of the day with my family. Waffles and games at our house. Joel and Brady and company came after work and Ben came after his work at 9:30 πŸ™

    Tuesday was recovery and scouts and back to our regular schedule except Ben had another 15 hour day (blah). LaNell came and played and had dinner with us so that helped switch it up a little. On Wednesday Ben had work meetings all morning and then I met up with him around noon and we went snowboarding at Sundance with some of his co-workers. I hadn’t been on the slopes for 3 years! So it was good to be there and the sun really did come out up there above the inversion. I was able to make it down the mountain without falling but I wasn’t doing any jumps or funny stuff. Eventually our legs started to give out and we crawled back to the van to head home before our time was up. Wimpy but Fun and when you have 5 dependents waiting foryou at home it’s easier to not push yourself beyond your limits!

    Thursday and Friday are a blurr. I’m sure I cleaned the same living room and kitchen multiple times and changed lots of diapers and tried to get nap time in and… Then for date night we went to my favorite Thai restaurant with Michelle and Udine. And then we went to Classic Skating to try my new roller skates! I barely made it around the track my first time. My legs were shaking, my ankles were trying to bend and it was just painful but… I stuck with it and started to get a feel for real skates. Ben was also a newby on skates and used Raymond’s stroller to keep his balance. So, when did roller blades go out of style? Everyone at the skating rink was wearing roller skates. I think 3 people had blades on. In my day we paid 3$ extra to get the blades. Anyway it was a fun date night and then I was off to my 11:30pm soccer game. And Saturday evening Ben and I lost another co-ed soccer game but we had tone of fun and Ben had a sweet goal this time.

    Sunday we were able to have my 5 siblings over that live here in Utah. We still get together most Sundays. Ben still cooks for all of us. Joel’s fiance Megan has got her foot in the door though and has contributed some delicious sides and desserts. We are enjoying getting to know her better before the March 30th wedding. She is great. It’s good to have Kelsey back from China and the brothers are always good for some laughs. Today we have the 4 Falabella kids coming to stay for the week! My kids are bouncing off the walls excited. I think it is going to be a good chill week with lots of mouths to feed. I am out of time. No pictures, sorry.

    Categories: Ben, General, Jana, Robertson

    SLEEPOVER

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    We had a sleep over with the Thal’s on Friday night! They are good friends of ours that live in Kaysville. It’s not far but we each have a few kids and it is just far enough that we only see each other once a year. So they invited us up for a sleepover. We went on Friday after work and the kids played and we talked and Saturday morning we kept playing and talking and Benji was in tears when we said we had to go home. So it was a success. We had fun hanging out. I did need a nap the next day but it was totally worth it.

    The only picture I took at the Thal’s house…

    Categories: General

    the stairs

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    Raymond learned how to go down the stairs! YES!

    On Saturday afternoon he tumbled headfirst from the upstairs to the living room. We were all sad. Later that same day he showed up downstairs without anyone’s help. So we started watching and sure enough he has learned to turn himself around at the top and scoot down! He is slow and sometimes it takes him a few times to get turned around the right direction and he lingers with his head over the edge a little too long for comfort but, he can do the stairs.

    I am excited because he won’t need me to rescue him multiple times a day. It’s also a little bad cause he has full reign of the house now. And he is our worst trouble maker yet. He has already been into the toilet more times than the other 4 kids put together! We are learning to close bathroom doors at all times. He loves any drawers and cupboards and everything still goes directly to the mouth. Β He keeps us busy.

    He has a mischievous little smile to go with his actions and he just makes you smile. He refuses to walk but he can stand up while holding on to things and is always pulling himself up to reach whatever the girls have tried to put out of his reach. Our little Ray will be One year old before we know it!

    Categories: Raymond

    what else…

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    what else …

    Rose is so Funny – she cracks us up all of the time.

    what else…

    Trying out the Razor Bike that Santa brought.

    what else…

    The Packers made the Playoffs but they lost…

    what else…

    IT IS WAY TO COLD and I miss BLUE Sky πŸ™

    Categories: General

    Alphabet Crown

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    Packer earned his alphabet crown. He knows all of his letters and their sounds! He came home wearing his crown on Monday and he was beaming!

    yes!

    Categories: Packer

    BYU Basketball

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    We looked at our calendar and realized that there was only one BYU game that fit our schedule – so we went! It was a snowy, cold night but the kids did well. The kids kept asking who else was going to be there but it was just us. (I guess we don’t do that very often.) We enjoyed watching with the kids and explaining the game.

    Categories: General

    Our Week in California

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    For the past 6 years we have spent Christmas at home and then we drive to California and spend the last week of the year in Oroville with my family. This year was no different except that we postponed the trip a day to try to avoid some of the snow. We still drove in snowy conditions from our house to Elko but after that we actually got the speedometer over 50mph and cruised the rest of the way. The snow slowed us down a little but luckily our kids are amazing and we only stopped 2 times in the 13 hours that it took us to get there! Love these kids πŸ™‚

    making our way out of the snow

    We got in Thursday in time for dinner. Christy’s family came earlier that day. My parents, Michael, Brady and Sean were there. Β Kevin and Liz were there and Joel had just brought Megan, his fiance, to meet the family! Josh and Mal came the next day and the sisters got home from China on New Years Eve. So we had a full house and tons of people to play with. We missed Ryan and Tracie and their families and wished they could have made it ( but 10 out of 12 isn’t bad).

    7 of us hanging out on New Years Eve

    We exchanged gifts with my parents. All of us siblings and cousins opened gifts from each other. We played a soggy soccer game one morning. I stayed home from the Hula’s trip to watch my kids but my mom and Liz stayed with me and Tonya and Erica came to visit for the afternoon so we had our own fun. We played some basketball at the church. Learned Bombay. Played Spot It, Ticket to Ride, Settlers, Sequence, Take Two, Rummikub, Saboteur, and Nertz. We got together with Mikila, Carrie, Angelee, Than, Erica, Jared, Emily, Jed, Rob, and Raeanne and their families for Pizza, Nertz and Fun. We took Rides in Dad’s new truck and dreamed about buying property. We ate frozen yogurt and mom’s homemade noodle soup. We brought in the new year with the Reynolds and a 2.5 hour game of nertZ! We visited with my dads sisters. It was a fun trip. I love ‘going home’. AND of course I don’t have pictures of most of those things but here is what I have…

    Hanging out with cousin Carter.

    Ella, Tommy, Kinley and Ray under the table while we play games.

    Making Ice Cream with Benji’s Ice Cream Ball

    Rose loving on baby McKinley.

    lots of mouths to feed…

    Cali begged Grammy to cut her hair short!

    Kelsey showing how to use the CH-CHina spinners that they gave the kids.

    My mom wrestling the babies. With these two and Thomas there was always someone to hold.

    Showing Jaydn and Payton their angry birds toys.

    Our Early New Years Countdown

    Ready to wack the crazy CLown pinada!

    Happy New Year!

    Pizza and Friends!

    Ray Ray and Tommyus tried to help with the dishes every chance they got.

     

    Categories: General, Robertson

    CHRISTMAS DAY

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    I love Christmas Day! It is such a different day than ANY other day of the year. There is so much joy and excitement and love. Like most years Ben and I were awake before any of the kids but we waited in bed patiently until the kids finally got up at 7:30 πŸ™‚ Benji went downstairs to check things out and then came in to tell us that Santa DID COME and that Dad was NOT on the naughty list! He had checked his stocking and found presents under the tree with Ben’s name on them! whew… Benji was very relieved – He is our tender hearted Child, always concerned for others. Yes, he DID note the presents for himself as well.

    We spent the morning opening gifts one at a time. Rose had to open and play with each gift as it was unwrapped. Benji had a hard time waiting for his turn. Cali and Packer were both kind of in shock mode. Santa brought each of the kids what they had asked for!! Rose wanted a Barbie, check. Cali wanted her own camera, she got the kids Vtech and has mastered it. Packer wanted a Furby, (yes, the overpriced robot stuffed animal), but if you were there to see the joy on his face when he really got one – it was priceless. And Benji did not get his own tablet but the family got an Xbox and he got Skylander Giants to play on the Xbox!

    We had a busy morning and had to postpone our Christmas Day Cinnamon Rolls a day and we barely made it on time to Christmas Dinner with Grandma and Grandpa and the Falabella’s. We enjoyed the afternoon with family and then came home and tried to decide if we should drive to California in the snowy conditions. We decided to wait and hope for better roads. I did not like waiting but I did like getting the house cleaned up from the Christmas chaos and the extra time to pack. We had a Great Day and a Great Christmas Season. WE ARE VERY BLESSED.

    This is possibly my favorite picture of the day: priceless…

    Categories: General, Nettesheim

    Leading Up to Christmas…

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    Where has my blogging time gone?? I am falling behind. I don’t want to fall behind because I have the world’s worst memory and I want to remember all of this…

    We had a fun December. It was busy and fun and went way to fast. This will be my Pre- Christmas post. Then I will need to do Christmas and our California trip to be caught up. And my goal in the mean time will be to do nothing blog worthy so that I will be up to date πŸ™‚

    Packer drew pictures on a daily basis and made them into presents for all of us.

    Cali made a super cute calendar at Preschool! She was so Proud.

    Christmas Specials on TV with Dad – we wished we could have had more of these low key nights.

    Each year we go to see Santa at Cabela’s with all of the cousins and each year we take a picture of all of us lined up ready to go!

    The FISH at Cabela’s!

    Packer was pretty upset that he couldn’t replicate the I Spy Book πŸ™

    These two are just starting to play together – so cute.

    Benji and Packer sang for us at the school.

    Big Kids Ginger Bread House!

    Little Kids Ginger Bread House.

    We had a special Christmas evening with Grandma and Grandpa Nettesheim. It’s nice to have that one on one time with them.

    Our Annual McDonalds on Christmas Eve!

    Eating TOO much food on Christmas Eve!

    Tracking Santa!

    Our Nativity

    Decorating Cookies for Santa!

    Excited to get to BED!

    Our 5 Cuties ready to go to bed and see if Santa is really going to come!!!

    Categories: General, Nettesheim