Christmas 2012 Part 4

* I must have accidently earsed all the pictures I had from Boise...

The day after Chritmas we left and made our way to Boise Idaho. My brother Clifton was there from Hawaii visiting his boys for Christmas. The last time I saw Clif was over 6 years ago when Derrick was just 10 months old. I had seen the boys about a year before - they were living in Salt Lake at the time and Julia had a late Dinner to attend so they came and spent the night at our house in Eagle Mountain.  Since Clif was in Boise there was no way that I could not stop and see him - plus this would be his first time meeting Riley and Owen. 

It was such a good visit. We rented a hotel room for two night- it was AWESOME - it had two queen beds and a separate sitting area. It was perfect for us to sit around in and visit. We went swimming in the pool, ate pizza, watched movies and played video games. 

We had a zoo pass the the Hoggle Zoo and Boise was on the list of zoo's we could visit at a discout. So I called up to see how much it would cost - 25 cents! Awesome! So we headed out to the zoo and had so much fun. Simon and Derrick got along great and Everett stayed with and talked and talked. Our favorite part - and Clif's - was the Male Lion. He was growling and running back and forth. Clif got a couple of videos of it. 

Before we left Boise we stopped at Ka-Rynn's house - where Clif was staying - she was pregnant and had been in the hospital and was finally home - we stayed about an hour before headed back to Utah. It was so hard saying goodbye, because He lives so far away and I do not know when I will be able to see him again. It was so nice and refreshing to see my brother again. I loved every single minute of it. 

Christmas 2012 Part 3

The Sunday before Christmas the kids got to wear their Christmas outfits. They looked so cute - especially Owen in his hate and bow tie.

Christmas 2012 Part 2

While we were in Coeur d'Alene went went to Dockside and had Gooey's! Dockside is a restaurant

inside the Coeur d'Alne Resort located right next to the lake. We good 2 HUGE Gooey's and a Slice of Coconut Cake.  Yum. We sat in a booth overlooking the lake and could see all the Christmas lights. A group of carolers stop right next to our booth and started singing Christmas songs. It was so fun. I am glad that I got to take my kids and enjoy this yummy treat!

December 2012 Part 1

 Better Late then never right? I need to blog about last December so that we have it on the blog and remember it and so that it goes into the 2013 blog book! So the next fee post are going to be about our trip. 

Daniel was laid of from Flatiron Construction at the end of November. He decided that he was going to go and work for his Dad until he found a new job. I was tired of him being out of town and I hated the idea he would be gone from us during Christmas time. So I asked him if he all might be able to go with him - he said YES. I called the school the next day and told them what was happening and and they excused Derrick for the entire month of December. I then called his Teacher to see if she might be able to put together a packet for him - or email he his work. She told me that since Derrick was so far ahead of the other kids that he would be just fine and the only thing that he needed to work on was reading. What a relief! So within a day we packed and left - and I left my house a mess.

   

I love this picture of Riley reading to her baby dolls. She is such a good little mama.

Derrick had his first loose tooth during our trip and wanted me to take a picture him wiggling it. So that is what is happening in this picture. 

Pine Wood Derby 2013

Daniel is the cub scout master in our ward - He has been cub scout Master since Septmeber but the barley just called him a couple of weeks ago! 

Last week was the pine wood Derby. He really wanted to give the boys trophies after they raced their cars. BUT, he only has $40 budget. That includes the treat, rewards and activity...So what do you do with that kind of budget? Your wife gets on pinterest and starts searching. 

I wish I had taken a picture of everything that I did but, I ran out of time and was just finishing up before Daniel had to be there. 

I found a really cute pine of hot wheel cars painted gold and glued to a plaque. Gold spray paint was NOT in the budget. I found a square piece of wood at hobby lobby, and painted it the boy scout blue. We found some hot wheel cars at Walmart that were racing cars (they all had a number on the side) and I left them unpainted and hot glued then to the wood. Then I had a gold paint maker that I used to right down what trophy it was and the year. There was a trophy for fastest car, best paint job, and best design. Then more trophy's that were for everyone else - we wanted to make sure that every boy received a trophy. I think the total for this was $16.00. 

 I also made a medal for all the boys. I just took tin foil and wrapped it around a Ding Dong. Then I hot glued Ribbon onto it. This cost about $8.00

For the refreshment they had Milk - Racing Fuel, Oreo Cookies - Tires, and Water - Gasoline. For each treat, I took a hot wheel car (that my kids had duplicates of, or were already broken) and drilled a hole in the top. Then I placed a small wooden dowel in the hole, and made a little sign. I also took a bigger car that we had that was broken, drilled two holes in it and placed a sign in it that said, "Pine Wood Derby". I connected the two signs with string and made a banner with some strip Washi Tape I had.  They only money that was spent on this was for the Milk and Oreo's $20.00

*I got a picture of the signs but not of the finished product!

 We went over budget by $4.00, Which I think is pretty good! 

I thought everything turned out really cute and ALL the boys loved their prizes. We had the Dad compete too, and the Dad's even liked the prizes they received!! I love doing crafts like this and it was fun to help Daniel out. 

Best Friends - When No One is Looking

 When Derrick is gone to school, Riley and Owen become the best of friends. They will play for hours and hours. I love watching them interact with each other. Sometimes the things they do together makes me want to scream, cry, laugh and pull my hair out all at the same time - like taking a gallon bag and filling it with water and dumping it on the bed (more then 6 times). Owen gets blamed for a lot of things but, I have a sneaky suspicion that Riley is the ring leader...

Most of the time they play quietly together, while I am doing chores around the house. Yesterday it was cars. They brought out all the hot wheels and lined them up on the living room coffee table. I love having these two all to myself in the mornings. I am going to miss Riley when she goes to school next year - I think 1st grade is worse then kindergarten - I never cry when they go to kindergarten but, when Derrick started first grade I bawled like a baby. 

Dan Clement Family Pictures 11-4-2013

 Oh good gravy, my kids are crazy! The boys are exactly like Daniel - crazy, jokers and hardly every serious in a crowd of on lookers - they are great at being the center of attention. Owen is just learning this and is 10 times worse then Derrick - I don't know if I should laugh or cry at what the future brings!  Riley takes after me - super shy, quiet and hates to be the center of attention (as we saw in the grand kid picture) - she gets embarrassed easily.  

After the blessing they wanted  a group picture of the "Daniel Clement" family. Here are the end results.

I am glad these hooligans are mine. I love them all so much, even when they stick they nasty toes in their mouth...

Clement Grand Kids

After Mimi's baby blessing the Clement grandparents wanted to take some pictures with the grandkids that were there. Everyone was giggling and laughing except for Riley.  She is super shy and did not want to set next to anyone but me. I made her go and sit on the couch anyway for the picture which resulted in her crying, sitting side ways and looking away from the camera. 

Their are 11 grand kids in this picture (including the two youngest). In total their are 20 grand kids! Hopefully sometime soon we can all get together and take a picture with the rest of them...But I have a feeling that their still might be a couple more in the future! 

Baby Blessing

Daniel's sister Mimi had a baby girl - Elsie - in October. She has taken a lot of time coming to earth and we could not be happier for the Sproul family! 

This past weekend was Elsie's baby blessing and the first time my kids have seen their new cousin. Owen could care less about babies - he was in Ardell's room the entire time playing. Riley and Derrick loved her and were excited to finally get to hold her. 

It was a wonderful baby blessing. Grandma and Grandpa Clement were able to make it along with Jenna. Travis family came up from Las Vegas and so did Dan's Aunt Linda  and Aunt Dorlene (Mary's sisters).

BUT, did I mention that one of my favorite people came down with Grandma and Grandpa Clement? TASHA! It was so good to see her and she brought along her cuter then cute son Wyatt.  It was such a short visit but it was so nice seeing a lot of the cousins and hanging out with Dan's sisters. 

Did I mention that Dan's parents, his sisters, and nephew all stayed at our house - condo? It was one packed little places, but there was enough space for everyone and everyone visiting had a bed. I am so grateful that we have such a huge bedroom (The kids slept on our floor) and that our dinning room and living room are so spacious!

The Stash..

My kids got TONS of candy for Halloween, which surprised me since we did not go to that many houses. Someone even gave one of the BIG candy bars. 

On Halloween night we let them pick out a couple pieced before it was time to brush their teeth and get into bed. 

They dumped out all their candy and waded though to see which ones they wanted. Owen and Derrick were quick to pick, but Riley... That girl can not decide if her life depends on it and rushing her does not help at all. She dumped all her candy beside her on the couch and just looked at it. I finally told her to pick the things she did not want and put them in the bag. Finally after about what seem like hours (10 minutes?) she picked what she wanted to have, a kit kat bar and a twix - she takes after her Dad!!

We made a rule that they can only have 3 pieces of candy a day and only after the get their chores done. I am wondering how long their candy is going to last...

Halloween

I loved the outfits my kids picked out this year for Halloween - one of the biggest reason was because they were all FREE.

Derrick wanted to be Luke Skywalker again and since he is slow at growing his costume form last year still fit. 

Owen wanted to be his most favorite super hero Iron man - he is obsessed with him. He even has an iron man toy that he got for his birthday that is hard plastic that he sleeps with most nights. We even let him watch the newest Iron man movie - does that make us bad parent? - He loved, loved, loved it and I am sure he would watch it every single day if we let him. Anyways, I mention to one of our neighbors what Owen wanted to be and she said that she had an Iron man costume that I could have...We got it about a week before Halloween and Owen put it on right away and I had to pry it off is body each night - I can honestly say he LOVES it!

Riley wanted to be Izzy from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. I think her costume was my favorite because we used things we had lying around the house. She already had a pair of purple pants and brown boots - so we used those for her costume. She wanted a shirt that looked like a pirate shirt and I did not want to spend money on a pirate shirt that she would only wear once. She had a purple shirt that would work - the only problem is that Izzy's shirt is pink. I remembered I still has some pink dye left over from when we tie-dyed shirts. BINGO! So I dyed the shirt pink and it turned out perfect. I made Izzy's pouch of pixie dust with some white yarn and left over yellow fabric scrapes that I had. I think she made a pretty pink Izzy. Tons of people recognized who she was, which made her feel fabulous!