Family pictures!

While we were in Hawaii, we had the amazing opportunity to have family pictures taken on the beach. Jabin, my brother in law, has a sister that is a photographer in Salt Lake. Her and her husband, Bob, were able to fly out to Maui for a few days while we were there to take them for us. I LOVE every single one of them! If you ever need a destination photographer, look up Bob and Lyndi Benson at Sugar Rush photography and Video. They do amazing work. Here a few of my favorites!

And because no one ever sees the behind the sceens pictures, here is a great epic fail picture! Three people went down (Travis, Gretchen and Grandma) in the ocean after an attempted everyone jumping pic! I laugh so hard every time I look at the series of pictures (my poor mom)!

Randoms

Here are a few things that I have captured on my phone camera that have been going on lately.

The boys finished up their little wrestling camp a week ago, but there is still wrestling going on. One evening, Travis got decked out  in Christian's old singlet and then decided he was going to help me make dinner that night...in his singlet!

We have a new art studio in town that has some great things to offer. They have been offering a preschool play dough to Van Goh class once a week. We signed Landon up for it this month and he has done some fun things. He's not always super excited about going and having to do a craft, but it gets us out of the house and gives us something fun to do. The first week, they talked about Groundhog day and did activities that go with that.

They made pudding cups that had crushed oreos for dirt and little groundhogs (teddy grahams) coming out of the ground for a treat.

Their groundhog pictures made from their footprints.

We had a really nice Valentine's Day this year. Travis and Carson both had to make boxes to take to school. They both ended up making football field boxes. The older two boys gave whoopee cushions for the Valentines and Landon gave flying frogs.

 I try to have lunch with one of the boys each month and February was Travis' month. He wanted us to come have lunch on Valentine's, so Landon and I joined him for lunch. We were excited when Carson got to join us for an early lunch so that he could help work in the lunch room. It was fun to sit and visit with both of the boys during their school day and see Carson in action working. The boys got visits from the high school swing choir who gave them singing Valentines and a carnation flower.

 

 After lunch, we came home and made some chocolate dipped strawberries to have with our "fancy" Valentine's dinner that night. Carson wanted to help me put on a nice dinner for the family. We had steak, cheesy potatoes, Caesar salad, bread, sparkling cider, and chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. We made sure to decorate the table up and played some Valentine music. Each of the boys (and Christian) got a box of chocolates also.

These were so delicious!

Dinner time!

Travis was finally able to receive his first cub scout belt loop and was so excited. He has had several earned, but because of a problem with the computers, he was never entered in making it so he couldn't receive any awards. They problem was fixed the beginning of the year and he's been so excited that he can actually get awards now.

Getting his award from his  scout leader Sister Ranee Frebrache.

Finished!

This last week we finally got the cabinets installed in our laundry room that is doubling as a craft room also! It's a dream come true and I'm in love! Now to organize everything and put it away!

Before:

Add caption

After:

Before:

 After:

Pup wrestling 2017

Thursday night was the boys' pup wrestling tournament. They are always super excited for this day. This year, their tournament took place right before the high school wrestling duel against Thermopolis. They separated the kids into 3 different groups for the tournament, and I'm still not quite sure how they divided them up. I'm pretty sure it was by weight, but Travis ended up being in the same group as Carson, which was the heaviest group they were mostly 4th and 5th graders (he's in 2nd). We was the smallest one in his group but did a really good job. He won his first match and then lost his second match which was against one of Carson's good friends. It was good for him to wrestle some bigger boys and learn from it (like if you let your opponent up, they get points).

It always cracked me up that they would do rock, paper, scissors.

 Carson was one of the biggest kids this year and we knew he would be. There aren't too many kids that try wrestling as a whole, and as they get older, it seems like less and less try it. Carson went 2-0 this year. He did really good and it was nice to have a couple of boys about his same weight.

Carson wore a knee pad to protect his injury he got while we were in Hawaii. We were worried about it getting reopened (when he first started practices) and didn't want it to get infected (because we all know how clean wrestling mats are...gross).

Brother discussing their matches.

Travis, Jared M. (Carson's good friend that Travis wrestled) and Carson waiting to get their shirts and medals.

They received their shirts and medals after they were done wrestling.

We stayed and watched the high school wrestle. They don't have many home matches, so we've tried to make it to the ones that they have had.