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."

New Years Eve

We had a pretty uneventful New Year's Eve. We need work on our house and the past few years we have gone parties and left our kids home.  I always feel guilty when we do this.  This year we decided would just stay home and let Bruce and the kids and I would party it up :)

We made balloons for every half hour to pop.  Bridget getting ready to pop the 8:00 one before she heads out for the dance.

 

 Beautiful and ready to go.

 We watched movies, ate snacks, and played on Kindles. (And had the disco ball going so it was a party for sure)

 Tylinn and Kaylee holding the 2014 balloon.

 Popping the 2014 balloon! Happy New Year!

 This was the best Happy New Year picture could get out of them!

We are thankful for the New Year.  2013 was great so bring it on 2014!

Updated Addition

As I am getting ready to end my blog book for the year I want to do a final update on our addition.  I wish it was that we were moved in but it isn't.  It hasn't gone as fast as we had hoped - shocker I know but it has been moving along pretty good.  Bruce has worked his tail off through all of this.

Two little helper sitting on the window of one of the back dormers.

 

 Bruce getting the trim painted before they started the siding.

 Dustin and Rhett were good helpers with the roof.  Lonnie and a couple of guys came for a couple of the days to help.  If nothing else good comes out of this the boys learned how to roof.  Rhett cut and Dustin nailed them down.

 Thanksgiving day David and his boys came to help.  We had dinner at Scott's house.  Jordan came over to help also.  They got a good part of the roof finished.

 Then worked on framing in the part of our existing house by the front door.

 Dustin getting the spot for the window.

 This girl has been a trooper through all of this.  Loving most of it with the boys.

 It was a happy day when we got the electrical done by Lonnie and Carston and when Bruce and Kenny got the plumbing done.  It seemed these drug on for a while but finally got them finished so we could get it insulated.  We had US Insulation come do it but Bruce and Dustin insulated mine and Bruce's bedroom wall.  (I think they brought a mouse home in the insulation from the Home Center when they got that insulation - one night Kaylee and Rhett saw one run from addition into the house - a few days later we smelled dead mouse in the house and found one shocked to death on the back of the oven - YUCK!)  We have too many cats to have any mice that is why I think it was in the insulation they just bought.

 I guess I didn't get any pictures of it getting sheet rocked.  We planned on having a bunch of people come help but right before Christmas isn't the time to be asking for help and my brothers that would have come two of them were moving and my dad had surgery on his eyes so he couldn't do anything either. We didn't know how Bruce, Dustin and I were going to get those 12 ft sheets up so we just hired some guys.  Three Indians that liked to laugh at us came to do it.  They were fast but not our favorite workers at all.  We were glad when they were done and gone.  All the kids have had lots of fun playing on these in there.  Great spot of cement.

 Bruce is not trying to get the taping done.  We were going to hire it out too to hurry and get it done but by the time the guy could start we figured Bruce could have a really good start on it.

 Dustin learned how to tape.  He wasn't too shabby at it either.  Rhett cut all the tape for Dustin and Bruce.  They made a pretty good fast team together.

 This is the stage we are at right now.  Most of it is taped, still needs coated and sanded and textured.

So still lots to do but we have come a long ways.  Bruce and Reece are out right now putting the garage door on.  That will be way nice to help keep the cold out.  It will be really exciting just having a garage.  We are very blessed!

Corral

We went to Snowflake after Christmas for a few days. Bruce stayed here to work at the PO and to work on our house.  While we were there Uncle Shawn took boys out shooting.  Grandpa also had the project to get a corral built on the range.  Friday morning this crew headed out to get it built.  It didn't even take too long.  We were blessed with beautiful weather during this Christmas Break!