End of school year and a wedding :)

Well the last week of school was not as busy as I expected.  I did get one of my courses finished for my master's so that was great.  Got myself another course for the term, haven't started but hopefully will get started here soon.

Colten finally got his braces on.  He has had an expander for 3 weeks and got a headache every time it was turned but finally the last day he said "It's working cause my front teeth don't overlap now."  He did really well in getting his braces and sat very still.  He was excited to choose his colors for his braces.  He choose blue, orange and hot pink...not sure where that last one came from.

On Friday, the kids got to go with Grandma to the Santa Clara library to make gingerbread houses.  The houses both collapsed before making it home but I think the kids had a good time.

Aspen earned herself a free ticket to Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker by attending the Teens After School program with the library.  I was super jealous.  After picking her up I saw a couple of parents in there and was a little upset that I hadn't thought of that.  Oh well, I am taking Colten next week.  She is not a huge fan of Star Wars but did say "it was the best movie of the Star Wars movies".  So it is a movie to look forward too.

And sometime last week we learned that Aspen has surpassed Colten in height (not by much) but Colten is not happy about this.  He kept going on his toes so he was taller but Aspen was excited to be taller.

Then came the big day...Zac and I finally got married.  We were surrounded by family and a few friends but it couldn't have gone better.  The ceremony was short and sweet and we went to Pizza Pie Cafe afterwards to visit.  All in all it was a perfect day.

My parents got a condo down in Vegas for a few days.  So we walked a lot (my leg didn't love me so much) but we got to see some of the Christmas decorations the strip had to offer.  We went to the wildlife habitat at the Flamingo, Conservatory at the Bellagio, the water show at the Bellagio, the weird escalators at the Venetian, watched "Ad Astra" at our condo, Cheesecake Factory at Caesar's Palace, the Atlantic show there as well. All in all it was a good trip but we are glad to be home.  Aspen and Colten left with Grandpa Higgins and Sheila after PPC to spend a week with them.  They have been having a blast.  Today is Christmas so it will be a little quiet around my house without kids but it is nice after the hustle and bustle of Vegas.

Another mild week for us

Just the usual activities for the kids and me.  Colten is still enjoying his karate.  One of his classmates tested for her black belt yesterday.  He is excited to ask her if she puked lol.  Aspen is enjoying her teens after school activities (probably wishes it was more than once a week).  She also did a Paint Nite this past week.  I had requested a painting of the Grinch and Miss Traci was happy to do it.  Aspen had previously done a grinch painting with Caroll but it was just the hand.  I don't have a picture yet with Miss Traci but I definitely will.  Her other picture she gave to Grandpa cause well he is the Grinch.

 Hollee had asked for the recipe to do cinnamon almonds and I told her that if I give it to her the cost is to make me some.  She happily agreed.  Love her!

 This week was filled with ward parties.  The kids and I headed out to LaVerkin to attend Zac's ward party and then we attend ours last night.  Zac was clearly not in the mood for pictures and I am not sure where Colten was lol.

All in all, it has been a pretty good week minus Colten getting an upset stomach and throwing up on his bed last night.  But it's all good, I eventually got back to sleep lol.

Isn't December supposed to be a busy month?

Oh wait...it kind of has been.  Although football season kept me busier lol.This past week was filled with fun...for the most part.

Aspen had her art class with Caroll and young women's activities.  She absolutely loves doing any kind of art.  This week she incorporated the Grinch in one of her paintings for grandpa lol.  I am teaching her well.  She also learned this past week when I say be home by dark I mean be home by dark.  She had gone with her friends to another friends house and wasn't keeping an eye on time/lightness outside.  So she got home much later than I would like and got grounded from her friends for a week.  She handled it pretty well after her first initial shock.  And to tell her the truth, I had forgotten all about it until now lol so that means she did awesome this week.  She did get to have a sleep over last night at Audra's and Audra always makes life better for her.

On Tuesday, the kids and I got to go see "Elf" at Tuacahn....thanks to a mishap on Tuacahn's part I was able to go and we absolutely LOVED it.  I want to go see it again lol.  The guy who plays Buddy does an excellent job at playing the child adult.  It is one of my favorites from Tuacahn.

Colten is still enjoying his karate.  His new instructor invited him to be a class assistant so he is loving that.  He is enjoying the tournament class as well.  He is also enjoying a little bit more time on his hands without football.  He gets to go to his other activities without leaving early.  He is still attending webelos and is perfectly fine with not earning any sort of award before the end of the year.

This Friday we stayed home to enjoy burgers.  I was finishing up a project for school so the kids and Zac thankfully were willing to let me do that.  Saturday after dropping Aspen off at Audra's, we headed out to Zac's to work a little on the house.  Colten was able to sand his room walls and I cleaned up a little.  Zac got the parts to fix my mom's car so it was like Christmas for him.  

We headed back to my place and were planning on going to the Dixie State game.  I got a phone call a few hours before it started asking if Oaklee could come over for a little bit.  Of course I said yes!  Colten had Bobo out and Oaklee had so much fun with her.

Then Zac came out to play with her.  I wasn't able to get a picture of him swinging her around in the blanket but she obviously loved it and wanted to do it again lol.

After she left, I got a call from my dad saying mom's car had died and was hoping I could give them a ride home.  lol never a dull moment.  I needed to get a card from her so we piled into the car a little early and went to help.  

We arrived at Dixie and the parking lot was packed.  I was a little nervous that there were going to be so many people there until I saw that there was also something (soccer) going on at the football field.  The crowd was better than last week and Brooks the bull and cheerleaders were there.  Much better experience as a fan.  Colten joined us this week and made it on the dance cam.  Zac wasn't in a great mood when I asked for a picture lol.  All in all it turned out to be a great game and Dixie remained undefeated

Lions and Tigers and Bears

OH MY....what a busy two weeks we've had.  Let's see if I can remember what has happened lol.  So Colten's football has officially ended, still haven't returned equipment but no more games.  That means he has time to focus on karate.  There have been a few changes at his dojo including Josh stepping down and Chris replacing him.  Josh will keep a tournament class, which Colten made, so he'll still be around.  Colten did get to do one last test with Josh and earned his green belt.  He has worked hard to get his kicks high enough and learned the required forms.  I love how he doe it on his own.  He is still attending webelos although not sure that he will earn anything before the church stops it in January but at least it gives him something to do besides read lol.  Aspen is still loving life and her art.  She went 2 times this past month to class with Carrol and once to paint nite with Traci. Her art abilities improve with each class and while she does enjoy reading, she will occasionally put down the books to paint a picture.  Aspen also pulled out a tooth that she worked for hours to get out.  She didn't want the dentist to do it while she had her cavities filled.  Colten got his expander in, has 3 weeks before his top braces go in.  I can't remember when but Aspen asked me to help her with her math.  Well Colten ended up stepping in and helping her...I don't think he is challenged enough at school after seeing him help her.

Let's see...what else have we been up to.  Oh yeah we watched Hollee's girls a couple of times.  Once before church and during our ward Thanksgiving dinner.  Aspen loved every minute of it and probably is the only cousin who will keep up with Oaklee's energy.

Last weekend, Zac, his girls, Aspen and I were able to go north for Jasmin's farewell.  Colten chose to stay in St. George to take his green belt test and have one on one time with Grandma and Grandpa.  It was a fun trip for sure.  We stopped at the Beaver creamery on the way up to Provo and didn't get up there until 10.  Saturday morning, I had wanted to go to the temple but closest one was 30 minutes away and I accidentally woke Zac up when I tried to start the rental car from the foyer (didn't know it honked when you start it remotely).  So we ended up taking all the kids out to Cabela's, Scheel's and IKEA.  The girls loved looking at the animals in Cabela's.  I loved looking at all the sports things in Scheel's and Zac loved looking at all the ideas for house stuff at IKEA.  So everybody won :)

Apparently I only took one picture lol

After the window shopping, we headed back to Doug and Melissa's for a Thanksgiving BBQ with Zac's family.  I got to meet the last brother from his mom's side, Ron and Raquel.  They were nice and their daughter, Callie, fit right in with Aspen and Tashlee.

Sunday morning was spent helping getting the soups ready for the luncheon.  I was able to watch about 20 minutes of the Broncos game before church with Spencer (Sandy's husband).  Sacrament meeting was loud but Jasmine gave a great talk.  We stuck around for a little bit after the luncheon before heading back.  It was a long drive back but so glad we were able to go up.

The next week was a short week for the kids and I, just two days.  And actually for Colten, I didn't make him go on Tuesday.  I spent Wednesday finishing up a project for my course and then picked up Zac and went to my parents to visit my mom who just had surgery.

Thursday was Thanksgiving.  Darcee and I were in charge of cooking since mom was recovering.  And it turned into Darcee, Kayleeya and Hailey cooking lol.  I was in charge of clean up.  The meal tasted awesome although it was about an hour late that what was planned.  Justyn and his family were there so it was fun to see them.  All in all, it was a great day full of football and food and family.

Not sure what we did on Friday.  Pretty sure the kids were doing their weekend chores for most of it.  Saturday was a pretty low key day.  The kids had tickets to Elf.  I thought that it started at 2pm but tickets said 3pm, so we went over to the grandparents to visit them and Hollee's family.  Gave dad his grinch presents :) . Pez dispenser's, a mug, and a T-shirt....he loved them all.  When we got up to Tuacahn, the play had already started!  Apparently they had changed the time and tried to get word out, but it didn't get to everyone.  I was able to reschedule and they gave me a ticket for free :) but there were plenty of others who were way upset about it cause they had traveled to see it.  So I took the kids to LaserMania where they played 2 laser tag games and did mini golf.

Saturday night, Zac and I went to the Dixie State men's basketball game.  Very low turn out and no cheerleaders or mascot :( . But the game was still pretty good.  Refs making some bad calls but Dixie still came out on top.  November was a great month and I am sure December will be even better.