Skiing- We love you Aunt Stephanie & Uncle Joe

We love winter, epecially when Uncle Joe & Aunt Steph come into town. We were lucky enough to be able to attend Annie's wonderful recital, the girl has crazy talent. We had a sleepover and lots of fun. The best part, according to Corbyn, was the skiing. I mean, how can you not love it when you have a personal ski instructer teaching you to ski. (Thanks to Uncle Joe who taught Corbyn this year adn Calvin 2 years ago...Chloe will be ready in a couple of years. Ha! HA!)According to Corbyn, she got off the rope in no time! She is so fast that she pasted Uncle Joe and he told her to pie, to slow her down. It is amazing she can go from beginner to pro in one day. Kenzie and Calvin both had a great time, too. They brushed up on thier skiing skills and Kenzie has learned how to turn quite well. There was only one big crash and that was when Corbyn skiied right into Kenzie, but they survived. Eric had a blast skiing with the kids. Chloe and I stayed at home, wishing we could be there but Chloe was sick all week, but we are glad they all had fun! Thanks Joe Elmer's we love ya!

Calvin and the Science Fair

Calvin entered the school science fair and out of 300 kids at his school, only 17 were chosen to move on to district and Calvin was one of them! He was so excited! Calvin doesn't get too excited about really anything, well maybe catching big fish, so to see him so excited was a real treat. He went and competed at district with his best friend, Andrew, which made it really fun! The competition was a PG High School and they were interview by the judges and presented their projects. Then they announced the winners, who would be moving on to the State Science Fair at BYU. I have never seen Calvin this anxious and excited. Well he was one of the last names read but again out of almost 300 he was one of the 60 kids moving on. His friend got honorable mention, which was still awesome because only 30 kids received a medal who weren't going to state. So they were both excited, plus Andrew was relieved because he's a Utes fan and tries to stay as far away from BYU as possible. So a couple of weeks ago Calvin and I went to BYU to set up his project and the next day he got to miss school for an all day science fair. He had 2 hours when the judges come around and ask questions, with only the kids, they had pizza, and watched a space rover movie about landing on Mars, he got to try to shoot enemy planes in the BYU Airforce Flight Simulator, and saw a live show of the Mad Scientist, of which his two sisters got to be Mad Scientist Assistants. They had a raffle and fun science facts to learn about and did the awards ceremony. He didn't win anything at State but there were about 12 kids that advanced to the National level so that is his goal next year. The kids that go on try out for the semi finals and, if they make it, they go to DC for a week. This is a lot more than I ever knew there was to Science Fair. It was so fun and a great experience. Calvin already wants to start figuring out ideas for next years project. Let us know if you have any good ideas. Thanks Calv for letting your Mom continue to experience new things, even in her old age.

Baby Chloe, A face only a mother could love!

Chloe really loves meal time! She not only likes to eat it, she loves to wear it more! She is so cute and fun right now. She is crawling, well she is "inch worming," thats what we call it. She loves to eat anything she can get her hands on, including the fuzz on the carpet, which we try to keep to a minimum. She still doesn't have any teeth yet but that doesn't keep her from chewing everything. We love you Chloey-bo!

What a wonderful experience at the temple

I meant to post this much sooner but it has been a crazy time and all of a sudden two months hav gone by. I guess that's what four kids does to ya! Well we took the kids to the Draper Temple Open House a couple of months ago and it was a great experience. Aaron and Teana came with us and we drove to one of the church buildings and then watched a wonderful movie about temples and their purpose. The kids were loving it, even Chloe watched the whole thing without squealing. Then we rode a charter bus to the temple, ok the kids were in heaven just riding the cool bus and getting to sit where ever they wanted, which is of course the back. As we were driving up to the temple, Corbyn asked Calvin and Kenzie, "Have you ever been inside the temple?" They reply "No" and Corbyn looks at me and says, "Mom, Calvin, even though he is 12, hasn't been to the temple, and Kenzie and I haven't been to the temple...Mom, this is going to be an experience!" As we drove into the neighborhood, the kids (& Aaron), started commenting on the big and beautiful houses that back up to the temple grounds. Corbyn asked how come we didn't buy one of those houses and I replied, "a little out of the price range." Corbyn kept saying how cool it would be to have the temple in the backyard. She then turns to Calvin and Kenzie and says, "Hey, I bet if we would of moved there I would get baptized at the temple, it's closer than the church." (Side note: Corbyn gets baptized in September and it is all she talks about, she is so excited.) Calvin looks at Corbyn and says," Are you dead?" Corbyn says, "No," and he says, "Corbyn, baptisms for the dead. You don't get baptised there you do work for other people." I guess Corbyn will have to settle for the church, but she really did enjoy seeing inside the temple. When we were in the sealing room she said, "Mom, I love this room, its so pretty and you can really feel the spirit in here." Out of the mouth of babes. For any of my non member friends I would be happy to explain about the temple and the beautiful things it represents. I would really encourage you to attend an open house if there is ever one in your area. We went on Feb 18 so it was the best Anniversary day ever! The only bad thing is because of the tour buses I couldn't get a picture of the kids in front of the outside of the temple, plus it was quite cold.

Another Corbyn Moment

Corbyn worte this note to the tooth fairy tonight. She lost her tooth, then lost the tooth and she couldn't figure out why the tooth fairy wasn't coming. She said, "Mom I slept with my mouth open so she would know I lost a tooth." I told her that she would need to write a note to the tooth fairy since she had lost the tooth and this is the note she wrote.

Family fun before the MTC

We had so much fun seeing all our cousins and celebrating Aunt Tany & Uncle Jerry's mission to California. We all got together for hamburgers at JCW's and were able to be apart of the big surprise of Kristin, Kerry, David and Brad's arrival. I thought Tany was going to have a heart attack and I think it took awhile for it all to register with Uncle Jerry that his kids were here. It was so fun to see how much it meant to them for their kids to support them and that they would all fly up here to see them off. It was great to be a part of such an exciting time. I know this time together will help them all the next 18 months. We love you Jerry Elmers!

We had a surprise visitor from Pasco!

Corbyn loves having two babies all to herself! (Since Calv & Kenz were sick)



Chloe lovin' those ears!


What a fun time, Kristin, Karen, David, Brad planned a surprise visit to Tany & Jerry just before going in to the MTC. I was able to be apart of the fun and Chloe, Corbyn and I picked up Kristin & Cody from the airport on Saturday around 10am. We got to spend a few hours together before the others arrived. Chloe was a little skeptical of her birthday buddy, but as soon as she saw he had ears to play with, she warmed right up! She is fascinated with ears, I thought it was my earring but nope it's just the ears! What a cutie Cody is and look at those pearly whites!