Family Night

We had to try out Justin’s new scooter and it is just to freezing to ride outside so we went into the church and rode in the gym.  I am hoping that is not against the rules!  We had a great time though, I was so nervous about getting a broken arm and Ashley fell hard right after we got there, but luckily we made it out in one piece!

Some major concentration!  This barbie bike (Claire calls it Dora bike) has been the best investment!  It is always popular and has survived all 4 kids so far! 

Emma is adjusting her scooter so she can win a race.

This little man couldn’t stand not going, thankfully his brother cant stand it either and he picked him up for a ride.

I couldn’t resist trying one of the scooters, they go fast!  I could hardly balance on it either.  I better stick to walking!

Fun family night on Justin’s birthday!

Justin’s Birthday Lunch

To keep with tradition I went in to have lunch with Justin.  He sat by me for maybe 5 minutes and then was ready to head out to recess!  He is such a boy!

While I was getting my lunch someone shut the lights off, I looked over and saw it was Justin and I gave him that “mom look”  Then he went over by the teacher on duty and she said Justin wants you to sing to him!  What a kid!  So the lunch room sang to Justin, the girls have NEVER done that before!  He was pretty proud of himself and told EVERYONE it was his birthday!  I think he thought it was a pretty great day!

These are the girls who were left with me in the end, Emma ran off to basketball practice and Justin was too busy to stay and visit with me!

Justin is 6!

How can Justin not be 5 anymore?  I love 5, it has got to be the best age ever, especially for my boy!  I am sad!  He was so excited for his birthday to come.  He has been counting down since 14 days ago!  We got up bright and early to open presents. 

Finally his own scooter!

We were SO tired!  The Bear is giving a BIG yawn!

And of course more Thomas toys. 

Ryan and I were talking about it and I think Justin has been getting Thomas and Lightning Mqueen since he was 2 or 3.  Boys are so much easier to shop for at this age, (probably at every age!)  I don’t want him to ever out grow his Thomas trains!

He can even light his own match!  That is scary!

What a boy!  He loved his decorated door, he wont take one thing down from it though.  I think he might start noticing when his chocolates are all gone… it is too tempting to pass by his room and not “borrow” one!  We just love this big brother!

Sunday Shots

Ashley thought the boys looked so handsome, so she took a picture of the back of them?!

We were glad to be back to normal church.  Last week we had it cut short because the heat wasn’t working.  I was supposed to give the lesson in Relief Society and didn’t get to.  Doesn’t that sound weird?  After all of the preparing I was sad I didn’t get to give it, not too sad though, I will have another turn next month!  Ryan spoke in Sacrament meeting.  He was hoping to be done with doing it so much since he isn’t on the high council anymore, but not so.  He needs a break!  It was also tithing settlement which made Ryan have to stay after church.  It was 6:45 before he got home.  He didn’t want me to bring in lunch or anything so he was pretty hungry when he got home!  That made a long Sunday at church!

We have had the games out lately, we must be getting close to Christmas!  We played a little Disney Scene it.  Like most of our games, we are missing a few parts so we had to improvise!

Rett dumped out the games from earlier. 

He choked really bad tonight also.  It was scary!  We were all in the living room and he was crawling around in the kitchen and got something in his mouth, it went down so I don’t know what it was.  We didn’t hear him until he started making a weird coughing noise.  Luckily he threw up (all over) and got it to go down.  He gagged for a while after and wanted to sleep but I didn’t dare put him down until I knew he wasn’t still choking.  He is just fine though.  I love this stage, but I really don’t like the putting EVERYTHING in his mouth part, because he does put everything IN!  Needles to say I had weak knees for the rest of the night!

Playing games!

A Trip to The Capital

Ryan and I got to go to the State Capital last week to see our good friend graduate from Post.   It was a pretty intense training, but now he is a State Trooper!  It was a real eye opener for Ryan and I.  It was very military ish.  Berny said it was pretty rough at first but he persevered.  We were glad to get to go.

Berny and Janet, and their kids.

The graduation was held in the Rotunda.  There were just 11 graduates so it wasn’t to big.

 

The new hats.

There were lots of little Ellis cousins there waiting for the ceremony to start.

Rett was the only one who got to come with us, and he was plenty!

All lined up ready to march.  (they even did the Left, left, left, right left thing)  The class president was SCREAMING their orders.  I was nervous!  He looked scary!

They stood like this the entire time, about an hour in the same position, CRAZY!

Berny getting his new hat.

Janet pinning on his new star.

Ryan and Rett.

Taking the oath.

The cars were all out in front of the capital lined up and shiny!!  Berny said they even shined the engines!  They looked great!

It was a cool experience for us, I would have liked to have taken the kids, we for sure need to take them to the capital for a tour, it was beautiful.

Claire’s Talents Continued!

For Ryan’s talent he had the kids make funny faces like him, I don’t think anyone can make funny faces quite like Ryan can, but they sure tried!

Everyone is fascinated by the tongue touching the nose talent that Ashley and I have!  So much talent in one little family!

Claire’s Talent Show

The next generation is taking over the stage!  Claire Bear is all about talent shows lately.  Emma helped her get it organized.  Justin helped a little too.

Claire did a tumble.

Justin did some karate that he learned from Braden.

Ashley almost had to be forced into performing, can you believe it!  The star herself is starting to get too teenagish.  She did participate, (the alphabet backwards) and wasn’t really THAT hard to get to go on stage.

Ryan told a joke,

Mom School

Ryan and the kids were all up to the table studying and doing homework the other night.  Notice Ryan and Emma’s hands.

As much as E is like me she is just like Ryan too!  Justin is really taking off with his reading, it is exciting.  Ashley has homework every night, she sits up to the table and gets right on it every time.  I am quite spoiled with her.

Then there is these two.  Rett got his fingers under that outlet face plate and can pull it right off.  Thankfully it is not electricity it is a antenna hook up that isn't hooked up anymore.  He pulls it off daily and Claire puts it back on.  I love evenings when we have time to be all together.  It must be winter time!