Apple bird

Dustin whipped out this bird from an apple the other day.  I had to take a picture of it!

 

Gilbert Temple Open House

We were very fortunate to be able to go to the Gilbert Temple Open House.  We were going as a youth group but lots of families went with us.  It was beautiful! My favorite part was the staircase that was huge and split and went up and up! 

 

 

 

We finished the tour and went as a ward to Ci Ci's pizza.  It was fun to be with so many people from our ward and visiting the temple.  Thankful to have another one close.

Fans

These are some of the cutest basketball fans out there.  Toby, Chandler, Noah, John, and Dustin!

 

Basketball

I will have a couple of basketball posts.  It seems to be that time of year.  Bridget loved playing on the JV team this year for basketball.  Basketball is one of those sports that she doesn't realize how much she loves until she starts playing. 

 

 They actually won quite a few games this year.   After the JV season was over Bridget wanted to dress out with Varsity so bad so she could watch the rest of the games and still go to practice.  Well her wish was granted.  She didn't end up playing any of the games but she was thrilled to death to just get to go to the rest of the games.  She started out the season very timid and not aggressive.  It only a couple of games for that to change.  Great season Bridget!  Loved watching you play!

Dustin is 14

On January 10th this cute kid turned 14!  He started his fun day with opening some pants and vans that he had been wanting. Yes the pants were wrapped in a blanket - lame but he didn't care!

 

 With a birthday in this house also comes birthday spankings.  As usual they are never the real spankings - but here is Bruce giving Dustin his

 For dinner that night he wanted to go to Wild Women's Saloon.  Doesn't sound like the best place for a 14 year old boy but it is just a restaurant in Bison Ranch.  Grandma Flake called and her and Grandpa were looking for something to do so they came and ate dinner with us.
Dustin wanted to have these boys over for the night.  We went to Circle K for hot chocolate.  They grabbed a few Coffee Creamers to go with their hot chocolate.  It wasn't until we got home that I realized how many they got.  Mrs. Crandell showed in them in Science how to make ice cream out of those so they wanted to go show her how proud they were of their creamers to make ice cream with.  After that and some ding dong ditching they found some girls their age at Maner's house.  After running around with them for a bit they headed back home.  It was a fun night for all!

 

With turning 14 also comes along a higher Priesthood.  Dustin has been looking forward to this.  Grandma and Grandpa Flake came for the occasion.

He is excited to be able to help prepare the Sacrament now.

Dustin is a great kid that likes to have fun.  He likes to make people laugh and loves to pester Rhett, Tylinn, and Kaylee.  Dustin we are so thankful you are in our home!

We the People

One of the reasons we were so glad Rhett was in Mr. Maner's class this year is so he could participate in "We the People".  For this program they are taught about the government and get speeches ready that they write themselves.  They are in groups and each group takes their turn presenting their speech in front of 4 judges.  They present their speech then the judges ask the panel questions about the government that the kids are supposed to answer.  This year thankfully it was on a Saturday so I could go with Rhett.  Mostly high schools are there - our group and 1 other group were the only middle schools there.

These pictures ended up out of order for some reason.  Rhett with the award for their class.

 

 Rhett's class.  Notice the boys in the back in the boy ties.  Porter made those for their friends (he usually sells them for $1 but decided for his friends he would sell them for $.50).  These boys were so excited about this.  Mr. Maner told them they needed to wait until after they presented to put then on.

 Rhett is down at the end but this is his group. Joren, Rhett, Makenzie, Hannah, Jillie, and Porter.

 I was so thankful I was able to go with him.

 They had a bit of down time and they played football.  It was a beautiful day at Grand Canyon University for this.

 They had lunch out on the grass for the kids before they presented.

I was really glad to get to go to this.  Those 6th graders know more about the government then I do! Mr. Maner is an excellent teacher and taught them really well!  They were very well prepared and got great scores from the judges!

New Year's Day

 

 

 

(I have been having problems with downloading pictures - so I am way behind)

New Years Days was pretty uneventful.  Scott came over and help Bruce a bit on the house.  His kids came for a little while.  The biggest excitement was we got to have a soda party for Tylinn.  At the beginning of last year - 2013 I told my family that we ought to see how long we could go without drinking soda.  Bridget and Dustin and Rhett went for a month or so.  Kaylee when for about 6 months but couldn't stand it longer but Tylinn was determined she wasn't having any for the whole year.  We didn't count homemade root beer and root beer floats.  

 

 All ready...........

 This was the party for the occasion.  She took a couple of swallows and said "Ok, I'm done for another year."