We have to brag on Cody!!!

Cody is such an impressive young man! As we noted in the Christmas letter, not only is Cody taking a full load of classes at BYU, but he also has a job AND has his own company. He and his business partner were recently spotlighted in the BYU newspaper….Check it out:

Other Blogs: Cody & Megan

Cody recently got some new photos up on his blog! Check out the fun he is having at BYU:

Megan has been doing a lot of Blogging lately…check out the very random thoughts/photos/videos of a 14-year-old.

Random Winter Events

Here’s a hodge-podge of events that have happened in the past month or so….

Above: We recently went to the Atlanta Temple for Date Night. They are going to shut our temple down for 2 years (soon) to do a complete renovation!!! We are extremely bummed! We will have to drive to either the Birmingham Alabama Temple or the Columbia South Carolina temple, both of which are about 2.5 hours away.

That’s funny though that I should whine about it since when I was growing up in Utah we used to have to drive 4 hours to the Manti Temple. But after I left Monticello (which now has a temple…the first small one), I have always lived within minutes of a temple…the furthest I have lived from one is 45 minutes when I lived near Seattle…so this is going to be very strange and sad. But I guess we will survive .

Above: A couple of weeks ago we got to take the girls to see the Jonas Brothers’ 3D movie. Hannah LOVES the Jo Bros too…so we all went together.

Above: Hannah can’t wait for the Hannah Montana movie to come out too!! I’m thinking another trip to the theater will be coming soon.

Above: Ashley had to dress up as an ancestor for “Achievement Days” last week. Then she had to present three facts about that person. She chose Nancy Naomi Tracy…one of Karen’s ancestors that lived in the days of and knew Joseph Smith. The picture she is holding was drawn by Franzi (our favorite German foreign exchange student).

Above: One of the best things about our house is the creek that runs through our property. The kids have really been enjoying it lately. (Don and PJ). Who knew we would be able to go crawdad hunting in our own backyard…it is very cool. We used to do that in St. George…but we would have to drive 30 minutes up to Veyo to do it.

We thought we were pretty safe playing outside during Fall and Spring…not too many worries about ticks and chiggers…..but Donovan got his first Tick on this day! He was traumatized!

When it rains the creek gets REALLY full and runs pretty fast.

Above: Just imagine Donovan saying: “STOP, PJ!!” And yes, they have fallen in many times.

Above: VIDEO ALERT!!!

Donovan swinging across the creek on the rope swing.

Above: VIDEO ALERT!!

And now it’s PJ’s turn.

Above: VIDEO ALERT!!

Frank’s Mom and Dad gave us this bell for Christmas. Frank finally got it rigged up on the back porch for us. We use it to call the kids in from the forest when it is time for dinner, etc. It is so awesome!

Field trip to Atlanta Aquarium

I love going on Field Trips with the kids. This time we got to go to the Georgia Aquarium in downtown Atlanta. It is supposedly the largest one in the world. It definitely was very nice.

I was in charge of 6 kids. Luckily I had another parent tagging along because that was a handful since it was VERY busy and we had one child that could disappear within seconds (and often did). As much as I like Field Trips…I think I will need to go back when I can look at the displays and not be constantly searching for children.

Here’s what we did:

Above: Walking into the aquarium. That’s Donovan in the brown jacket, and that’s his favorite teacher, Ms. Ferry up ahead of him (turned toward the camera). It was a 30 minute bus ride to get there…THAT was fun .

Above: these are 5 of the six kids we had in our group (we had already lost one .

Above: They were able to touch sting rays and little sharks. They probably liked this the most.

Above: This was a huge whale slide. You had to go up to the next level to go down it. This was another hit.

Above: Donovan up close and personal with an alligator. They were very interactive.

Above: The Baluga Whales were cool.

Above: Everyone loved the big tunnel where you were surrounded by sealife.

Above: Donovan and me.

Above: The Bus Ride. Donovan was trying to get a picture of his teacher…but he could never quite get one. She’s really good with the kids…in teaching and discipline.

Snow in Georgia

I understand it is a rare event to get snow in Georgia…at least where we live. So, when it started falling we quickly broke out our snow gear and the kids went crazy. We actually ended up getting about 4 inches…but the photos don’t reflect that because once it started sticking and getting colder…I didn’t feel like going out and taking pictures of anything. Now I regret it…but I still have Las Vegas blood…it’s toooo cold!!!

Above: Ashley, Donovan & PJ…

Above: Grandma…remember that coat you had in your closet for about 4 years?? It finally fits PJ!!

Above: VIDEO ALERT!!!

This is looking out an upstairs window at the front yard and driveway. Too bad you can’t tell how large the flakes were…they were so beautiful!

Above: VIDEO ALERT!!!

This is looking out an upstairs window at the backyard as the snow fell.

Above: VIDEO ALERT!!!

The kids enjoying the snow.

Ashley’s 10th Birthday

Ashley’s celebrated her 10th birthday with a sleepover party and invited some friends from school and church. It was nice outside and they spent some time out there on the trampoline. It was all pretty quiet…until Frank and the boys decided to sneak around the house and scare them. But then they got a good game of “Kick the Can” going and all was forgiven.

Above: Megan made her a classic birthday cake! I guess PJ actually made the cake…Megan decorated it…and Ashley actually got to decorate the sides.

Above: The lucky ladies that got to help her celebrate: Christina, Emma, Ka and Kemji.

Above: It was a wild night!!

Above: Woohoooo!!! Pixos!!!

Above: Emma